Sheffield United goalkeeper, Paddy Kenny, has let a lot of people down including himself with the news that he has recently failed a drugs test. The keeper apparently bought some cough mixture that contained a substance that was banned by the Football Association.

It is no surprise that he has subsequently been suspended by his club and now faces the prospect of a massive two-year ban from the game that is likely to dent the immediate future of any career ambitions he may have had.

The point is that Kenny is not a young player, he is one of the more experienced in the Sheffield United side and he should have known better. He obviously knew what he was taking and the risks it involved and he should have gotten every thing checked out before he made any decisions. Fair enough this was only a medicine but the point is that in the modern game you have to be so careful about what is going into your body.

It will not look good to a number of the younger professionals at Sheffield United that would have looked up to him. Kenny has been a corner stone of the Sheffield United team for longer than many would care to remember and he would probably be the last person that a number would name to be involved in such an incident. He had a good club and a bright future and he has thrown all of this away in a moment of madness.

Kenny would be lucky if United kept him on because they would be well within their rights to just sack him completely and let him go to another club. For a side that is trying to break into the Premier League they do not need this type of publicity being attached with the club.

Had Sheffield United won the play-off final and been promoted to the Premier League then you can predict that the club that lost out would have been calling for the FA to intervene as United’s goalkeeper quite obviously cheated. It is irrelevant whether he knew what he was doing, the point is that there are strict codes and conventions and it could well have ended up in some sort of court case, let’s just be grateful that United didn’t actually get promoted.

This is not the first time that a high calibre player has been involved in a drugs scandal. It must not be forgotten that not too long ago Rio Ferdinand was banned for 18 months after he failed to carry out a drugs test. On that occasion it was not actually proven that Ferdinand had taken any thing and yet he was still banned for an enormous length of time.

So the risks for any player who are toying with the idea of taking a medical substance or something similar are massive and now they will quite clearly know that it is probably too much of a risk to do. It’s quite simple to get around, if you have a cough and you are unsure over whether you can take something then just go and see the physio who will tell you yes or no. It is not rocket science.

There have also been cases where players have been pulled up over taking a number of recreational drugs in their own time. In these instances the players in question have all been sacked from their sides and it is doubtful that they will ever be able to get a contract playing football again.

Sheffield United now face the long and hard task of trying to find a high profile replacement to come in and take Kenny’s place. This will be difficult because every week he probably would have been the first name to go down on the team sheet. When you get into such a routine of being able to pick a player without thinking about the decision, this makes the task to bring someone in to replace him even more difficult.

United will just want the matter dealt with. They have been in the news a lot over the last one or two seasons for all of the wrong reasons. Firstly, there was the saga involving Carlos Tevez who was playing for West Ham United and scored the goal that relegated the club. A court case followed over Tevez’s ownership and that resulted in West Ham paying United a large sum earlier this year.

The point is that although the club got a bit of money out of this they probably just want to focus on the football as opposed to having to deal with such negative press all of the time. They have done well to deal with the Kenny incident so quickly as it will allow them to move forward with a new keeper who can help them progress.

For Kenny the options are quite simple. He now has a very long time out of the game to think about what he has done and whether he wants to continue his career in football. Once the two years are up he will probably find a slightly lower profile team that will give him a contract but he needs to decide whether he loves the game enough in order to make this sacrifice.

He only has himself to blame and should be ashamed the next time he goes out onto the streets of Sheffield and quite likely the fans will heckle him. As a top level professional you have a responsibility to your club, your fans but more importantly yourself. You cannot toy with medical issues and in this case it has grossly come back to slap the player square in the face.

There will be a number of keepers who will be chomping at the bit to get a game for United and the list of candidates to replace Kenny is probably already being worked on. However, the point is that it is an issue that need not have come up and has only come up due to the stupidity of one person. I’m sure a lot of people now feel sorry for United and their fans.