The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) announced on Friday that Paul Pogba's doping ban has been reduced from an original four years to 18 months.
“The period of suspension will be 18 months from 11 September 2023,” said Cas executive director Matthew Leaveside.
The France international was provisionally suspended by Italy's National Anti-Doping Agency (Nado Italia) in September 2023 after testing positive for DHEA, a banned substance that increases testosterone levels.
The 31-year-old, who has a contract with Juventus until June 2026, denies any wrongdoing and said he would appeal to Kass in February. The doping test was conducted after Juventus' 3-0 season-opening win against Udinese in Serie A on August 20, 2023.
The court said a prohibited “non-endogenous testosterone metabolite” was detected, adding that the results were “consistent with an exogenous (external) origin of the subject compound.”
“Paul never wanted to break the rules,” Pogba's agent Rafaela Pimenta told Sky Sports News at the time of the suspension.
On Friday, Pogba said he would tell his full story “once there are no legal restrictions”. I posted a photo on social media A close-up of him wearing soccer cleats and personalized PP6 socks embroidered with the French flag and two stars (representing the World Cup victory) with an hourglass emoji.
