Phil Gould stands by Latrell Mitchell comments in telling call on Josh Addo-Carr's future
The Bulldogs boss has given a strong indication that Addo-Carr might have played his final game for the club.
Canterbury boss Phil Gould has given his strongest indication yet he is running out of patience with Josh Addo-Carr and may be on the brink of recommending the club sack the exiled winger. Gould revealed Addo-Carr has been ordered to front the NRL Integrity Unit this week to explain the circumstances behind his drug-driving bust before his meets with the Dogs board to fight for his future.
The Canterbury supremo will make a call on whether he believes the former representative winger should stay at Belmore and will pass those recommendations on to the board. Gould's word carries huge weight and it's extremely unlikely the board would reject his recommendation.
Gus went out on a limb for Addo-Carr when the player originally claimed innocence to the drug charge, but now appears a lot more sceptical. Gould told '100% Footy' on Monday night: "At the end of the day, what will happen is that I'll come up with a decision on what I think the future of Josh Addo-Carr at the club should be and I'll take that forward and discuss it with the people that count.
"They may or may not take my recommendation, they may have other ideas. We will do what we think is in the best long-term interest of the club, it’s as simple as that. The players understand that – (it's) club first, team second, individual third."
Josh Addo-Carr still maintaining his innocence
Gould expressed his disappointment in Addo-Carr and is at a loss to explain how the man they call Foxx still believes he is innocent despite two separate tests showing traces of cocaine in his system. "I haven't spoken to him since the second positive analysis came back. I believe he's still protesting his innocence," Gus said.
"At the end of the day, it's in his system when he takes a drug test on the Friday night. How it got there, he needs to work that out and explain that to the people that count sooner or later. It was certainly disappointing from a club perspective. It was certainly bad timing from a club perspective. It wasn't good."
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Phil Gould stands by Latrell Mitchell comments
In a further bad sign for Addo-Carr, Gould said he "100 per cent" stood behind the comments he made over the Latrell Mitchell white powder scandal. “I don’t think our club could tolerate that sort of behaviour, I don’t think that we could tolerate that at all," Gould said at the time. Addo-Carr stood himself down from his team's elimination final defeat to Manly and was not present at the club's Mad Monday celebrations.
