France’s national football team manager, Didier Deschamps, has conveyed his sorrow regarding Paul Pogba’s four-year doping suspension issued on Thursday.
Pogba received the sanction after testing positive for a banned substance in August last year and has been under suspension since September 11th.
Despite denying the allegations, the Juventus midfielder plans to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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Deschamps, familiar with Pogba, believes that he didn’t intentionally ingest banned substances and acknowledges the challenges Pogba has faced in recent months.
“I don’t believe for a minute that Pogba intended to or wanted to dope,” Deschamps said as quoted by L’Équipe.
“Just like the judgement announced by the Italian anti-doping tribunal on Thursday, what Paul has experienced these past months has been extremely difficult and I can’t be insensitive to his pain, given what he has done with the national team and the relationships that have been formed with the France national team.
“His situation saddens me and I really hope that things will work out.”