Crucial records from Essendon’s controversial supplements program may have been “either destroyed or removed”, Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority boss Ben McDevitt has revealed.

In an exclusive interview with Fairfax, Mr McDevitt said the lack of records kept at Essendon during the 2012 program had been a “troubling issue” for the anti-doping authority.

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ASADA does not have any evidence of Essendon destroying or removing documents, but Mr McDevitt told Fairfax he believed one of two scenarios had taken place at the club.

“One is because of the secretive nature of the regime, that no records at all were kept,” Mr McDevitt said.

“Or, alternately, if records were kept then they were either destroyed or removed by persons unknown in a bid to get rid of the evidence.”

ASADA chief Ben McDevitt. Photo: AAP

The organisation announced on Wednesday it was considering an appeal against the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal’s not-guilty finding for 34 past and present Essendon players.

Speaking to media, Mr McDevitt said: “Will we consider an appeal? The answer to that is, yes we are.”

“What we know is that hundreds if not thousands of injections, apparently unsupervised and undocumented, were given to Essendon players during the course of the 2012 season.

“The absolutely deplorable and disgraceful lack of record of these injections means we will have young men not knowing what was injected into them.”

The former Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner said he had a “suspicious mind” about what happened to the records.

“My understanding with sporting bodies is that, with their supplements regimes, there’s extensive documentation and you would expect to be able to find that.”

“In this case it’s just extraordinary that there is no documentation to be found.”

Mr McDevitt said players had been treated like “pin cushions”, and called on Essendon’s former sports scientist Stephen Dank to produce records if he had them.