The results of a drug test revealed that Paul Pogba, a midfielder for Juventus, has excessive amounts of testosterone in his system. As a result, he has been provisionally barred from playing.
Pogba reportedly had a test after Juventus’ 3-0 victory over Udinese on August 20th, according to Italy’s national anti-doping tribunal (Nado).
The France international, who is 30 years old and has never started a game for his country, was chosen at random for post-game drug testing.
If he is proven to have used performance-enhancing drugs, he may face a suspension of two to four years.
In a statement, Juventus explained what happened, saying, “Juventus Football Club announces that today, 11 September, 2023, the footballer Paul Labile Pogba received a precautionary suspension order from the National Anti-Doping Tribunal following the results of tests carried out on 20 August, 2023.”
“The club expressly reserves the right to consider the next procedural steps.”
Pogba’s agent, Rafaela Pimenta, stated that she was “awaiting the second sample and cannot have an opinion before the results”.
Pimenta continued by saying, “One thing that we know for sure is that Paul Pogba never intended to break a rule.”
Pogba was found to have broken anti-doping rules after the presence of a banned chemical known as “non-endogenous testosterone metabolites” was discovered, and the results were “consistent with the exogenous origin of the target compounds.” Nado indicated that Pogba was responsible for the violation.
Athletes that use testosterone regularly experience a boost in their stamina and performance.
Pogba has a total of three days to come up with a rebuttal to Nado’s appraisal of the results.
After Pogba played out his contract with Manchester United and became a free agent, the Italian club Juventus re-signed him to a new agreement in July 2022 that was for a period of four years.
Pogba’s return to Turin, on the other hand, has been hampered by on-going injury issues, the same issues that caused him to miss the World Cup in Qatar the year before.
In this season’s games against Bologna and Empoli, Pogba has come off the bench for a combined total of 51 minutes of game time.
In the previous season, he played a total of 162 minutes across all competitions, including 108 minutes over six Serie A games, three brief appearances and one assist in the Europa League, and 11 minutes in the Coppa Italia. He did not score any goals during this time.
Pogba’s injury issues have lately come back to the forefront, with Juventus manager Massimo Allegri stating that the star picked up a small back problem after his game against Empoli.
