Inside Paul Pogba's never-ending nightmare: Injuries, blackmail and a failed doping test

Paul Pogba has started just one game since rejoining Juventus in the summer of 2022. There is now a very real chance that he will never play for the club again, after elevated levels of testosterone were found in a random drugs test taken after the Bianconeri's Serie A clash with Udinese on August 20.

Pogba has been provisionally suspended by the Italian anti-doping tribunal (NADO Italia) and his agent, Rafaela Pimenta, says they are now awaiting the "counter-analysis" to see if the B sample confirms the presence of the banned substance in the Frenchman's system. "Until then, we can't say anything," Pimenta said. "The certain thing is that Paul never wanted to break the rules."

If found guilty of doping, Pogba could be banned from football from anywhere between two to four years, meaning his top-flight career is very much in the balance right now. What is already beyond dispute, though, is that this failed doping test represents another devastating setback for a player that has suffered one trauma after another since returning to Turin last year...