NRL players did their own drug tests, often submitting the urine of clean team mates to avoid positive results, according to late disgraced footballer Ryan Tandy.

Before his death by a drug overdose on the NSW Central Coast in April, Tandy made the claims about in-house testing in interviews with reporter Josh Massoud, News Corp Australia reports.

The former player, who fell from grace over a 2010 match-fixing scandal and was given a lifetime ban, is featured in a new book telling of a culture of drug-taking within NRL teams before his sacking from the Bulldogs in 2011.

“If you’re uncertain, you can just ask another player who’s clean to pee in it for you. It’s something I’ve had to do,” he said.

Tandy claimed ecstasy was commonly used by NRL players but most only took the drug on bye weekends to ensure it was out of their system before they returned to training.

He claimed that at more than one of his previous clubs, players were unsupervised when they submitted samples for in-house tests, just being given a cup at the start of training to hand back at the end of the day.

Tandy said “heaps of players” submitted other players’ clean samples.

NRL Integrity Unit boss Jim Doyle said the game’s governing body had since cracked down on in-house testing and the new testing regime was conducted by an independent and fully certified third party tester.