{"id":1193,"date":"2009-11-23T05:16:35","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T11:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=1193"},"modified":"2009-11-23T05:20:12","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T11:20:12","slug":"bath-welcome-stevens-after-his-drugs-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/bath-welcome-stevens-after-his-drugs-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Bath welcome Stevens after his drugs ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u200b<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/matt-stevens-bath.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1194\" title=\"matt-stevens-bath\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/matt-stevens-bath.jpg\" alt=\"matt-stevens-bath\" width=\"369\" height=\"286\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/matt-stevens-bath.jpg 369w, https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/matt-stevens-bath-280x217.jpg 280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 369px) 100vw, 369px\" \/><\/a>Bath Rugby chief executive Nick Blofeld has told Matt Stevens the club would welcome him back once his drugs ban expires in January 2011.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Stevens, 27, was suspended for two years after testing positive for cocaine following Bath\u2019s Heineken Cup tie away at Glasgow last December.<\/p>\n<p>The dynamic England prop has already had an informal offer of a deal from Wasps board member Lawrence Dallaglio, who recently criticised Bath for not showing Stevens enough support.<\/p>\n<p>Blofeld said: \u201cI have spoken to Matt about where he sees his future and what he would like to do. We would love him to come back to us and I have made that clear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI may not have been at the club for very long, but in that time it is clear that Matt\u2019s presence at the club has been missed, both on and off the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stevens, who has spent his time in isolation from rugby opening a cafe in Bath with his former team-mate Lee Mears and learning martial arts, said he would consider a return to The Rec.<br \/>\n\u201cI\u2019m very pleased that Bath have spoken to me and said they would like me to come back,\u201d said Stevens.<br \/>\n\u201cIt is obviously early days for my future rugby career, but Bath and the rugby club are obviously still a big part of my life and I will give it very serious consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blofeld believes Stevens would be as close to being match-fit as possible when he returns \u2013 which would give him every chance of making England\u2019s World Cup squad for the 2011 event in New Zealand.<br \/>\n\u201cMatt has kept very fit and has even become a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion, which is an extraordinary feat and demonstrates again his drive and determination to succeed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bath Rugby chief executive Nick Blofeld has told Matt Stevens the club would welcome him back once his drugs ban expires in January 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[1921,1918,1924,1923,1914,1915,1926,1919,77178,1878,1916,1917,1913,1920,1922],"class_list":["post-1193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rugby","tag-bath-heineken-cup","tag-bath-rugby","tag-blofeld","tag-lawrence-dallaglio","tag-matt-stevens","tag-matt-stevens-drugs-ban","tag-new-zealand","tag-nick-blofeld","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-union","tag-rugby-union-stevens","tag-rugby-union-stevens-ban","tag-stevens","tag-stevens-cocaine","tag-wasps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}