CAS confirms reduction of Pogba's doping suspension

Pogba, who is under contract with Italian giants Juventus until 2026, will be able to return to competitive football from March 11 next year, four days before his 32nd birthday.

"The CAS Panel based its decision on the evidence and legal arguments made that Mr Pogba’s ingestion of DHEA, the substance for which he tested positive, was not intentional and was the result of erroneously taking a supplement prescribed to him by a medical doctor in Florida, after Mr Pogba had been given assurances that the medical doctor, who had claimed to treat several high-level US and international athletes, was knowledgeable and would be mindful of Mr Pogba’s anti-doping obligations under the World Anti-Doping Code," the Court of Arbitration for Sport stated on Monday.

Pogba tested positive for testosterone in August 2023 after a match between Juventus and Udinese in Italy. 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.

A key figure when France won the 2018 world title in Russia, Pogba collected four Serie A titles in his first stint at Juventus but had a string of problems, on and off the pitch, after his 2022 return from Manchester United.

During the 2022/23 season, Pogba made just 10 appearances for the club, mainly due to a knee injury that also ruled him out of the World Cup in Qatar, where France lost out to Argentina in the final in December 2022.