BERN/LIMA: Peru’s World Cup captain Paulo Guerrero has lost his last appeal against the 14-month dope-test ban which nearly kept him out of the World Cup in June writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

The 34-year-old was banned from playing for one year by FIFA for having tested positive for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, after Peru’s World Cup qualifier against Argentina in October 2017.

His suspension was cut in half last December on appeal to world football’s governing body but the World Anti-Doping Agency successfully argued to the Court of Arbitration for Sport that the revised ban was insufficient and a 14-month period of ineligibility was imposed in May.

The ban was suspended by the Swiss court, pending the outcome of an appeal. In August a Swiss federal tribunal has ruled he must serve the remaining eight months of his sanction, ruling him out of competitive action until April 2019.

The court has now rejected the player’s request for another lifting of the suspension. Guerrero has always denied wrongdoing, claming that the drug was detected because a herbal infusion he drank had been contaminated with coca leaf, an ingredient in cocaine which is also widely used as a non-narcotic traditional remedy in South America.

CAS had recognised that Guerrero ingested the substance unknowingly and did not intend to enhance his performance. However he was ultimately responsible for whatever substances he took,

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