American basketball player DJ Cooper has been reportedly suspended after he flunked a drug test conducted by International Basketball Federation (FIBA). In a bizarre turn of event, Cooper was found to be pregnant. It turns out that the urine sample he provided in 2018 was his girlfriend’s, who didn’t know she was pregnant at the time. Tests revealed that the sample was clean but contained pregnancy hormones, which exposed Cooper’s fraud. He was immediately slapped with a two-year ban. Cooper’s plans to join the Bosnian national team that year was quashed. Researchers Uncover Moral Dilemmas Doping Athletes Go Through.

As per a report in Eurohoops, the basketball player planned to bypass the dope test by providing his girlfriend’s urine instead of his own. But the testing revealed that there was a presence of human chorionic gonadotropin or hCG. The hormone is secreted by the human placenta after implantation. It can be detected in the human urine from seven to nine days after fertilisation. Here’s Everything You Need to Know about Doping in Sports!

The bizarre piece of news has left many people baffled on Twitter. Here are some comments:

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Cheating in drug tests is not new in sports where players use prosthetic penis or catheterisation to substitute their urine for clean urine. But Cooper’s is possibly the first case where pregnancy hormones played a role in exposing the fraud. The player possibly didn't factor in his girlfriend's pregnancy at the time.

The 28-year-old Cooper was planning to join the Bosnian basketball team, for which he had to undergo the dope test. But after the results, he won’t be able to play till June 2020.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 05, 2019 06:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).