The medical tribunal investigating British Cycling and Team Sky's former doctor, Richard Freeman, suffered its second 24-hour delay in two days and was postponed to Thursday.

After the original hearing in February was thrown out, the hearing resumed last week and opening statements were made, but the week was spent in closed-door discussions to correct one of the allegations against Freeman.

Last Tuesday, the court session was scheduled to officially begin at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, November 5, but was postponed for 24 hours to Monday at noon. Tuesday afternoon, the same statement was issued, stating that the process had been postponed one more day and that the parties planned to resume at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

"We have been informed that the tribunal hearing Dr. Freeman's case needs additional time before announcing its decision on the preliminary application to amend the motion," a statement from the Physician Appeals Service said.

The ongoing arguments relate to the wording of one of the 22 allegations made in the GMC's case against Mr. Freeman, namely the three allegations that he is contesting. These all relate to the provision of banned testosterone to British Cycling and Team Sky's headquarters in June 2011, both in and out of competition.

In its initial case brief, the General Medical Council (GMC) outlined allegations that Freeman's "motivation for the order was to obtain test gels to be administered to athletes to improve their competitive performance." However, the GMC is now attempting to change the concept of "motive" to one that Freeman knew or should have known of this possibility.

Last week, the GMC argued that this does not represent a change in the burden of proof, but rather reflects an update of Freeman's own defense.

In his statement last week, read by his attorney, Mary O'Rourke, Freeman outlined that he admits to ordering 30 sachets of testosterone gel, and he had previously claimed that the package was sent and returned in error, that he "lied a lot" about the matter . had been."

Freeman claims that the test gels were not for doping athletes, but for treating Shane Sutton, who worked as a coach for British Cycling and Team Sky. However, Sutton, who will appear as a key witness for the GMC and will also be cross-examined by O'Rourke, denies this, and the GMC intends to present evidence from an endocrinologist that Sutton would have no medical need for the test gel.

If the GMC can substantiate its claims during the court period, which ends December 20, Freeman could lose his medical license and face doping charges. UK Anti-Doping, which handed over evidence to the GMC after its investigation into the so-called "Jiffy Bag" case was derailed by a lack of medical records, has reportedly been assured that the World Anti-Doping Agency's updated 10-year statute of limitations will apply.