Ivory Coast goalkeeper Sylvain Gbohouo has been ordered by FIFA to sit out of professional football activity for 18 months after his involvement in doping rule violation.
The 33-year-old, who has represented the Elephants in 65 caps, tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication that the World Anti-Doping Agency stated is a stimulant.
The Wolkite City goalkeeper has been serving a provisional suspension after a positive test in November’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers, when the Elephants played Cameroon in Yaounde and lost by a solitary goal.
BBC Sport quoted a FIFA statement reading: “As a result of the presence of the prohibited substance in his sample, the player was found to be in violation of article six of the FIFA Anti-Doping regulations.”
In the hearing, the player admitted to having used the substance unknowingly during his visit to the hospital for an eye problem.
The Disciplinary Board then went on to rule that the player will be out until mid-2023, putting his chances of playing in the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations to be held in his home nation in jeopardy.
“The player, Mr. Sylvain Gbohouo, is sanctioned with a period of ineligibility of 18 months for having infringed the relevant provision of the Fifa Disciplinary Code related to Doping as well as the relevant provision of the Fifa Anti-Doping Regulations sanctioning the Presence of a Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers in a Player’s Sample,” the statement affirmed.
Taking a look at documents to support this, FIFA adjudged that Gbohouo had unintentionally doped, thus reducing his ban from the standard four years for such an offence to two.
The ban was further reduced by six months after Gbohouo cooperated with the FIFA investigators.
Gbohou was part of the Ivorian squad that lifted the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.
