French football star Paul Pogba has been handed a four-year ban from football by Italy’s anti-doping tribunal after testing positive for testosterone last August, it has been reported.
The 30-year-old World Cup winner, who currently plays for club Juventus, had been provisionally suspended in September after the positive test results emerged.
A spokesman for Juventus confirmed that they had received notification of the ban against Pogba from the tribunal. The exact details of the ruling are still unclear as Italy’s anti-doping body has not yet responded to requests for further information.
The ban stems from a positive doping test following Juventus’s opening match of the Italian Serie A season against Udinese on August 20, 2022. Despite being a substitute for the match, Pogba tested positive for testosterone. A later B sample confirmed the presence of the banned substance, resulting in his provisional suspension.
Representatives for Pogba have claimed that the presence of testosterone came from a food supplement prescribed by a doctor he had consulted in the United States. Pogba, who returned to Juventus in 2022 after a six-year stint at Manchester United, was a key player in the France team that won the World Cup in Russia in 2018, scoring in the final against Croatia.
The positive doping test comes after a difficult first season back at Juventus for Pogba, during which he made just 10 appearances and faced off-field issues, including an extortion attempt against him. The ban is a major blow to the footballer, who will now have to navigate through these serious repercussions in his career.
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