The doctor caught up in the Harlequins fake blood scandal has reportedly admitted that she cut the lip of Harlequins winger Tom Williams, as she appeared at a General Medical Council misconduct hearing in Manchester.
Sources are reporting that Dr Wendy Chapman accepted the charge, which could end her medical career.
Dr Wendy Chapman, 46, is alleged to have deliberately cut the lip of Harlequins wing Tom Williams to cover up the use of a fake blood capsule in the European Cup quarter-final against Leinster on April 12, 2009.
She now faces a fitness to practise hearing of the General Medical Council (GMC), which regulates the conduct of doctors in Britain, starting in Manchester, northern England, on Monday.
The hearing, which is expected to last two weeks, will also probe allegations Chapman made statements to “deceive others that the injury occurred on the field”.
Chapman is also accused of failing to inform a subsequent European Rugby Cup disciplinary hearing that she had caused the injury to Williams’s lip.
The GMC alleges Chapman’s conduct “was likely to bring the profession into disrepute and was dishonest”. If found guilty she could be struck off.
Williams was provided with the blood capsule by Harlequins physiotherapist Steph Brennan, on the instructions of director of rugby Dean Richards.
The plan was to create a situation whereby fly-half Nick Evans, a specialist goalkicker, could get back on the field and so boost London club Harlequins’ chances of winning the match.
As it was, Irish province Leinster won 6-5.
Former England No 8 Richards was given a three-year ban by the ERC disciplinary panel after it emerged he had faked blood injuries on several occasions, while the club were fined 259,000 pounds.
Williams had a one-year suspension reduced to four months on appeal after providing the hearing with new evidence, which exposed an alleged cover-up.
Williams told the ERC hearing he’d asked Chapman to cut his lip because the incident had aroused the suspicions of both the match officials and Leinster’s medical staff.
He added he’d initially agreed to say he cut his own mouth because Chapman was “concerned about the impact it could have on her career if it came out she had cut my lip”.
Chapman, an accident and emergency consultant at Maidstone Hospital in Kent, southeast England, is currently suspended from practice, pending the outcome of the the GMC hearing.