Juventus and France midfielder Paul Pogba has been provisionally suspended after a doping control detected elevated levels of testosterone, the Italian Anti-Doping Organization (NADO Italia) said on Monday.
After a nightmare season between injuries and a blackmail affair, the 30-year-old’s dreams of bouncing back were shattered by the alleged doping offense after Juventus’s 3-0 win at Udinese on Aug. 20, during which he was an unused substitute.
On Monday, the 2018 world champion had told Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera of his “desire to play” after a “difficult year” that could have “destroyed” him.
Photo: AFP
Instead he received a new blow.
NADO Italia said Pogba had violated anti-doping rules when it detected the prohibited substance “non-endogenous testosterone metabolites.”
Juventus said in a statement that Pogba had “received a precautionary suspension.”
“The club reserves the right to consider the next procedural steps,” Juventus added.
The test concerns the “A” sample, and if the “B” sample also tests positive for testosterone Pogba could face a four-year ban.
Pogba rejoined Juventus in July last year from Manchester United. From 2012 to 2016 he had helped Juve win four Serie A titles and two Coppa Italia titles, and reach the UEFA Champions League final in 2015.
Pogba had been a star player in France’s 2018 FIFA World Cup triumph, but had an awful 2022-2023 season blighted by injury and a multimillion euro blackmail plot involving childhood friends and one of his brothers.
He played just 10 games for Juventus last season and missed last year’s FIFA World Cup with France.
He had been slated for a return to action against SS Lazio at the weekend and said in the interview with Al Jazeera that he was raring to go.
“I’ve had a difficult year, so I’ve this anger and this wish to play football,” Pogba said. “The only people that can hurt you are the people close to you. Enemies you know where they are, but friends, family, that you think they’re happy for you, they can destroy you.”
“You have to be careful, money change people, can break up a family,” he said of the multimillion euro extortion efforts by former friends and his brother Mattias.
Pogba said that at times he had been deeply demotivated by the matter.
“I was just by myself thinking I don’t want to have money anymore, I don’t want to play anymore, I just want to be with normal people, so they will love me for me, not for the fame, not for the money,” he said.
After the latest setback Pogba faces an anxious wait for the “B” test.
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