Turnbull is provisionally banned at the moment

A legal team is known to be working on Turnbull's behalf and the Irish Sports Council and Athletics Ireland are also getting legal advice on the matter.

The case has left the Belfast athlete's hopes of competing in next month's European Championship in major doubt.

A date for the hearing to decide Turnbull's fate has yet to be fixed.

Turnbull is facing a possible two-year ban after a drugs test showed up higher than normal levels of testosterone.

The doping charge relates to an out-of-competition test which was conducted on 30 September last year.

When news of the positive drugs test broke last month, a spokesman for the 27-year-old told BBC Sport that the athlete "emphatically denied any wrong doing".

It was subsequently revealed that the testosterone reading concerning Turnbull would not have been an offence two years ago.

The Irish Sports Council's charge against Turnbull is understood to have stated that the testosterone ratio in the drugs test from last September was between 5:1 and 6:1.

Carroll is certain that Turnbull has not committed an offence

However, prior to 2005 readings of 6:1 and under were permissible under then World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) rules.

But in 2005, a Wada rule-change reduced the highest legal testosterone ratio from 6:1 to 4:1.

The Belfast runner is understood to have had several tests before and after the 30 September test which showed normal testosterone levels.

There has been no official information on the findings of the B-sample test which is believed to have conducted in the last fortnight.

Turnbull was handed a provisional suspension when he was informed of the drugs test result on 12 June and while Athletics Ireland lifted that provisional ban for a short period a week later, it was then reimposed a week later.

The normal procedure in doping cases in Ireland sees the Irish Sports Council referring them to a three-person disciplinary panel who make a judgement.

Guilty verdicts in these kind of doping cases usually mean a two-year ban although there would be the option of making an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.

Turnbull's regular training partner Mark Carroll has described the doping charge levelled against the Belfast athlete as "crazy".