According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Juventus would have a very strong case to terminate Paul Pogba’s contract, because it’s reported he took medication without alerting their medical staff, causing his doping test failure.
The midfielder showed elevated levels of testosterone in the blood test taken after the 3-0 Serie A victory away to Udinese on August 20, a match that he spent entirely on the bench.
A counter-analysis of the B Sample will be done over the next couple of days, but more details are beginning to emerge on what happened and it does not look good for Pogba.
La Gazzetta dello Sport claims he told the club that he took a vitamin integrator while in the United States over the summer that was recommended to him by a friend who works in medicine, but did not cross-check it with Juventus medical staff.
This would be a huge oversight, because American rules on what ingredients need to be listed on the label are very lax and vitamin integrators shipped from the USA were also the cause of the outbreak of nandrolone positive tests – which show up as testosterone metabolites – in various Serie A clubs including Juventus in the early 2000s.
After that series of positive tests, Serie A club medics and players agreed to co-ordinate on everything they took, cross-referencing to make sure nothing had any hidden banned substances.
If Pogba confessed to taking this integrator without checking with the medical staff, Juventus would have a very strong case to pin the blame entirely on him and terminate the contract.
Considering his constant injury problems and huge salary, it might be too tempting an option to turn down.
Even if he can prove that he was not knowingly trying to take a performance-enhancing drug, the ban can still be circa two years.
Get him out asap.