French international footballer Paul Pogba’s four-year ban for doping has been reduced to 18 months, a spokesperson from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Friday.
“I can confirm the decision: an 18-month suspension with effect from 11 September 2023. The reasons for the decision will follow later,” the CAS spokesperson told AFP.
Pogba, who is under contract with Juventus until 2026, will be able to return to competitive football from March 11 next year, four days before his 32nd birthday.
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Pogba tested positive for testosterone in August 2023 after a match between Juventus and Udinese.
He was provisionally suspended in September of the same year, and then banned for four years by the Italian National Anti-Doping Tribunal the following February.
Pogba’s representatives said the testosterone came from a food supplement prescribed by a doctor he consulted in the United States.
After the ban was announced, Pogba posted on his Instagram account that he had “never knowingly or deliberately” taken doping products.
“I am sad, shocked and heartbroken that everything I have built in my professional playing career has been taken away from me,” he wrote.
