Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana has been handed a 12-month suspension for failing an out-of-competition doping test, with the club claiming their number one accidentally took medicine prescribed for his girlfriend.
The Eredivisie club revealed the Cameroon international has been banned by UEFA after it found the forbidden substance Furosemide in his urine, following the test in October 2020.
The doping suspension is effective from February 5 and applies to all football activities.
Ajax added that UEFA had stated that Onana, who has played 18 times for Cameroon, had no intention of cheating and said they will appeal against the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
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Ajax said they had hoped Onana would receive a shorter ban because the substance was “arguably” not a performance booster.
Ajax managing director and former goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar said: “We explicitly renounce performance-enhancing drugs, we obviously stand for a clean sport.
“This is a terrible setback, for Andre himself but certainly also for us as a club. Andre is a top goalkeeper, who has proven his worth for Ajax for years and is very popular with the fans.
“We had hoped for a conditional suspension or for a suspension much shorter than these 12 months, because it was arguably not intended to strengthen his body and thus improve his performance.”
Onana is banned from all football, meaning he will not be available for Ajax’s domestic or European matches, including their Europa League campaign this season. They face Lille in the last 32 later this month.
He will also be unavailable for Cameroon until February 2022, including the Africa Cup of Nations – should they qualify – which has been rescheduled to January next year. The final two games of their qualifying campaign are in March, away to Cape Verde and home to Rwanda.
© ControlTV 2021.
