Sale Sharks prop Karena Wihongi has been suspended for four months after testing positive for a banned stimulant.

The front-row forward from New Zealand tested positive after a league match in January for methylhexaneamine, a stimulant that has been behind a number of recent doping cases.

A Rugby Football Union discipline panel banned Wihongi on March 9.

Because he was provisionally suspended on January 28, he will be free to play again from May 27.

Sale says in a statement Thursday that the "stimulant became present via a contaminated product that was available through the club's supplements program."

Sale says Wihongi took the stimulant "without his knowledge and without any premeditated plan."

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