When you watched Andre Agassi play tennis, there was invariably a sense of witnessing a true performer. Here was the sportsman who gave sport fans everything he had, like it was an offering from him to us. And Agassi was loved for it. What now? He has written a book admitting his use of the mostly recreational drug crystal meth and lying to escape a drug ban and a tarnished image.

This happened 12 years ago, so should it matter? Extracts of the book have been serialised, presenting the juiciest bits from a sensationally frank book. Andre, you just know, is performing again: as if he wants this book to be every bit as engrossing as a five-setter at the US Open against Pete Sampras. He worked with the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer JR Moehringer and if the stories are true, they met virtually every day for a year at the Las Vegas house Agassi once shared with Brooke Shields, his former wife.

Agassi says his autobiography, Open, is honest. According to one writer who has seen extended extracts, the story is one of the most revealing, literate and honest sports autobiographies in history. Well, that might not be so difficult. An American journalist friend once asked the former basketball star Charles Barkley about something written in his autobiography. “Let me stop you right there,” Barkley said, “I was misquoted in that book.”

Agassi has taken far more care and he does, apparently, tell a gripping story about his early hatred of a father who was desperate to make him a star. He writes also of once loathing the act of playing tennis and, of course, there is the admission of crystal meth abuse. He escaped sanction because he wrote a dishonest letter to the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in which he claimed to have drunk a soft drink spiked with crystal meth by an assistant, conveniently referred to as “Slim”.

But much about the story and the apparent honesty is convenient. His need for honesty has dead-heated with his need to sell his book. How coincidental. His admission of using a banned drug comes three years after his retirement from the game, at a time when it has the least capacity to hurt him. There are other points to consider, not least in this case the potential for glamorising the abuse of crystal meth.

Extracts, by their nature, reduce the substance of a book to its most arresting stories and its sexiest details. Reports of extracts tend to focus only on the sexy details. Every comment or account of Agassi’s revelations quote his reaction to his first experience of crystal meth: “I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the rubicon I’ve just crossed. There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful, and I’ve never felt such energy.”

We have no right to expect Agassi to show our youth how to behave but perhaps he and his publishers might have ensured that extracts of the book couldn’t be used to make him sound like a salesman for crystal meth.

There is, of course, another important dimension to the meth revelation and that concerns how easily the ATP’s appeals panel accepted the lie. He tested positive for crystal meth, so they knew it was in his system, and the ATP’s panel would have known, as everyone knows, that a drugs policy can only operate on a system of strict liability, which means if it’s in your system, it’s your responsibility, one that cannot be waived by an apologetic letter.

But, of course, the ATP didn’t want to give Agassi the mandatory three-month ban for using a recreational drug and presumably didn’t want the image of the game damaged by the revelation that one of its stars had used crystal meth. Are you surprised? John Fahey, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA], has asked tennis authorities to “shed light” on how Agassi should have tested positive and escaped sanction. Good luck to him.

As usual with these retrospective revelations, we are assured that everything is now changed, that the ATP has signed up to the WADA Code and that such leniency would never be tolerated today.

Well, Richard Gasquet, the men’s singles semi-finalist at Wimbledon two years ago, tested positive for cocaine earlier this year but was exonerated after explaining that his failed test was due to kissing a woman who was using the drug. Gasquet is from France and he explained to the International Tennis Federation that it was a French kiss and the woman had ingested just before their exchange of saliva. So everything has changed, right?

Let us return to Agassi and his book. He tells us now that what he writes is honest and encourages us to imagine that it is not just the truth but the whole truth. But as he lied about his use of crystal meth 12 years ago, there is no way we can trust him now. My guess is that Open is something closer to the truth than we have had before, but then anything would have been closer to the truth than that lie.

Due out on November 9, Agassi’s book will be worth reading. In the same way that he was worth watching on court, his confessional will absorb us. But in stimulating our interest in his book, he has admitted that he didn’t always tell the truth and, in fact, when it suited his purposes, he could tell some pretty substantial lies. Revealing past lies is a two-edged sword; you get people to pay attention but you also make them less gullible.

“It lives up to the title,” Agassi said of his book. “It’s my life, for better or worse. Get ready, buckle up, and keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times.”

He might also have told us that it might not be a bad idea to suspend our disbelief, for the performance is often better when you do.

Hurling legend's sense and sexuality

One thought in particular struck me while reading Donal Og Cusack’s excellent memoir of a hurling life, Come What May.

Cusack plays for Cork, is a three-time All Ireland winner, and his book is wonderfully engaging. It tells the story of battles won and lost, on and off the pitch, and candidly explains Cusack’s understanding and then acceptance of his homosexuality. A Channel 4 news report claimed he was the first elite sportsperson in Europe to voluntarily come out.

It is hard to believe he is the first but even harder to come up with the name of a Premier League footballer or a Premiership rugby player who has voluntarily admitted to being gay. There is, of course, the presumption that they don’t come forward because they believe it would be badly received by fans and opponents. What does that presumption say?

Do gay sportsmen misread the situation or are we not yet ready to accept them? Donal Og Cusack plays a game that has its roots in rural Ireland and there were fears about how people in the broad community of Gaelic games would react. Fears that were misplaced. Cusack’s decision to publicly speak about his homosexuality has been welcomed and the reaction to his story has been mature and reassuring. People have moved on, old prejudices have disappeared and for once, a sport book has served a purpose other than straightforward entertainment.

Perhaps some top-flight gay footballer or rugby player will soon test the temperature of the water on the east side of the Irish Sea.

Injured inaction

In the ongoing debate about rugby union’s rising injury toll, the most grim part is the absence of anything being done to alleviate the problem. Consider who England will be missing for this month’s autumn Tests: their two best props, Andrew Sheridan and Julian White; their two best backrow players, Nick Easter and Tom Rees; their most important playmaker, Riki Flutey, and their fine full-back Delon Armitage.

That is six of England’s most important players, four of whom, Sheridan, Rees, Flutey and Armitage, are recovering from serious shoulder injuries. Most people accept there is a problem and there is agreement that the collisions in rugby union are becoming too violent and leading to far too many injuries. And most agree that England’s Tests against Australia and New Zealand are diminished by the absence of so many key players. And yet there’s no hint of a solution.

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• Graham Spiers