I have never contemplated cheating to gain an unfair advantage in sport and I’m not going to start.

Even now, if someone offered me a super drink that would get me playing back in the Premiership and an England cap I would say no!

I couldn’t live with myself and definitely not live with being labelled a cheat. Everything you had done up until then would be thrown into question.

Am I an angel then? Squeaky-clean? Not me, not at all!

I have cut the corners at a few pre-season runs, appealed for a throw on that wasn’t mine and I might even have gone down a little too easily at the tackle of a forward.

In the world of sport the word ‘cheat’ is the label that no-one wants.

‘Act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage’ is the definition of cheat.

Just recently, two of the biggest names in athletics, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay were exposed for using performance-enhancing drugs.

Cheating is something that has happened right from the school playground to the pinnacle of the Olympics.

People have and always will try to get an unfair advantage.

In different sports, people tend to take the act of cheating to different levels.

How damaging is it for the sport when a person is exposed for cheating?

For many years now in professional sports, in order to gain an unfair advantage people resort to taking drugs.

Some of the biggest cheats have come from the world of athletics.

Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson and US track queen Marion Jones are two names that automatically spring to mind.

Athletics seems to always recover, but for how long before the public think it’s just a drug- riddled sport?

That is, if they don’t think that already.

It’s not just athletics.

American National sports like MLB, NFL and NBA have all had their fair share of scandals Boxing, tennis and cricket have all been affected.

Golf isn’t renowned for having drugs cheats, yet in 2009 American Doug Barron became the first golfer to be banned for using performance-enhancing drugs.

Cycling was rocked with the exposure of the so-called ‘greatest ever’ Lance Armstrong, as well as another Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis.

So what of my beloved football – where does that figure on this subject?

I mean, Diego Maradona has been labelled the biggest cheat in football ever – and that was just for handball!

Don’t worry, I’m not forgetting his crazy facials on TV that led to him being exposed as being on drugs in the 1994 World Cup.

Football has been rocked with a few drug scandals.

Players have been caught using performance-enhancing drugs, with Edgar Davids and Jaap Stam (pictured) being two big names that spring to mind.

Other people have been caught using drugs, but I would class cocaine as recreational, not performance-enhancing.

I don’t see how cocaine would improve performance, but drugs are drugs and for the record, I don’t agree with any of it.

With the huge financial rewards in sport these days, does it make the risk versus reward dilemma more appealing for people?

I think any drug-taking should result in you being banned from your sport for LIFE!

I am a massive sport fan and would love all sports, professional and amateur to be clean and free from drugs.

If you are tested by your governing body and found guilty of using illegal drugs it should mean that you have to leave the sport never to return again.

I think if that rule was brought in, it would make people think more about the consequences of cheating.

I’m afraid people will always try to find a way to gain an unfair advantage, at what sort a level they will go to is down to the individual.

I hope that one day all sport is cheat-free, with the only advantage coming from talent and hard work.