Disgraced Major League Baseball slugger Ryan Braun admitted Thursday for the first time that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his 2011 Most Valuable Player season.
The Milwaukee Brewer player, who was suspended in late July for the remainder of the season after MLB's probe of the Biogenesis clinic in Florida, apologised but said he justified the use to himself at the time because he was trying to heal from an injury.
"The products were a cream and a lozenge which I was told could help expedite my rehabilitation. It was a huge mistake for which I am deeply ashamed and I compounded the situation by not admitting my mistakes immediately," Braun said.
Braun was previously hit with a 50-game suspension in late 2011 but he was able to get it overturned in February 2012.
He tested positive for elevated testosterone levels, but won the appeal on a technicality when he challenged how the test samples were stored.
At the time Braun vehemently denied using performance-enhancing drugs and he also used his notoriety to launch a public attack on the lab worker who handled the sample.
Braun also apologised to the collector of his sample, Dino Laurenzi on Thursday.
"I deeply regret many of the things I said at the press conference after the arbitrator's decision in February 2012," he said in a written statement.
"At that time, I still didn't want to believe that I had used a banned substance.
"I think a combination of feeling self righteous and having a lot of unjustified anger led me to react the way I did. I felt wronged and attacked, but looking back now, I was the one who was wrong."
