French international midfielder Paul Pogba’s four-year doping penalty has been reduced to 18 months, according to a CAS representative 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 on March 11 of next year, four days before his 32nd birthday.
In August 2023, Pogba tested positive for testosterone following a match between Juventus and Udinese.
He was provisionally suspended in September of that year, and the Italian National Anti-Doping Tribunal banned him for four years the following February.
Pogba’s agents stated that the testosterone came from a dietary supplement prescribed by a doctor he saw in the United States.
After the punishment was issued, Pogba stated on Instagram that he had “never knowingly or deliberately” used doping drugs.
“I am sad, shocked and heartbroken that everything I have built in my professional playing career has been taken away from me,” he wrote.
— Paul Pogba (@paulpogba) October 4, 2024
On Friday evening, following the CAS verdict, he posted a photo of two feet wearing Pogba football boots with socks featuring his initials and emblazoned with the French flag and two World Cup stars.
Pogba was a vital component in France’s 2018 World Cup victory in Russia, and he won four Serie A titles during his first spell at Juventus, but he struggled both on and off the pitch when returning from Manchester United in 2022.
During the 2022-23 season, Pogba made only 10 appearances for the club, primarily owing to a knee injury that also kept him out of the World Cup in Qatar, where France lost to Argentina in the final in December.
He was also a victim of orchestrated extortion, for which six persons, including his brother Mathias, were ordered to stand trial last month.