Pogba likely to face ban of up to four years after failing drug test

MILAN, Sept 12 (Agencies): Once the most expensive footballer in the world, France star Paul Pogba could be banned from football for up to four years after testing positive for testosterone.

The Juventus midfielder has been provisionally suspended following a random drugs test taken after his club's 3-0 win at Udinese on August 20, Italy's national anti-doping tribunal (NADO Italia) announced on Monday.

The test revealed elevated levels of testosterone, a hormone that can increase an athletes' endurance, meaning the 30-year-old's second sample will also need to be examined. Pogba has three days to produce a counter-analysis of the result, according to reports in Italy. If found guilty of doping, the France international could be suspended for between two and four years.

"In acceptance of the instance proposed by the National Anti-doping Prosecutor, it has provided for the provisional suspension of the athlete Paul Labile Pogba," NADO Italia said in a statement. The tribunal said Pogba had violated anti-doping rules when they found the prohibited substance "non-endogenous testosterone metabolites", adding that the results were "consistent with the exogenous origin of the target compounds".

Injuries and a bizarre blackmail plot involving his own brother have dominated his second spell at Juventus, and the latest revelations came just as the midfielder looked ready to get back to his best.

Italy's anti-doping authority NADO revealed on Monday that Pogba, who is still only 30, showed elevated levels of testosterone in a test taken after Juve's season-opening win at Udinese, a match in which he did not even play.

Pogba has since been a substitute in Juve's other two Serie A matches and despite picking up a thigh knock against Empoli earlier this month could well have featured in Saturday's home fixture against Lazio had he not been dealt the latest of a series of blows to his career.

The test result came soon after the release of an interview with Al Jazeera in which he said he wanted to make his critics "eat their words".

"I want to show them I'm not weak. They can talk bad about me. I will never give up," he said.

He has only started one match since returning to Juve as a free agent from Manchester United in July last year, six years after leaving the Turin giants for a then world record 105 million euros with four Italian league titles to his name.

It was a move which was supposed to regenerate his career which had gone stale in England, but he almost immediately suffered a serious knee injury in pre-season.

And his initial decision to not undergo surgery in a bid to make the Qatar World Cup eventually back-fired, ending his chances of helping France defend their world title and further complicating his club campaign.

Pogba was a key figure in the 2018 triumph in Russia and scored one of France's goals in their 4-2 win over Croatia in that year's final, but he has not featured for his country since a friendly win for Les Bleus over South Africa in March last year.

From being on top of the world Pogba has slowly slipped down to the depths, ravaged by injuries and a difficult personal life which he admits has been adversely affected by the vast sums of money earned by football's top players.