• Ivory Coast’s Sylvain Gbohouo has been banned for 18 months.
• The 33-year-old tested positive for trimetazidine.
• The drug can boost endurance.

Ivory Coast goalkeeper Sylvain Gbohouo has been banned for 18 months after testing positive for a prohibited substance, FIFA announced on Monday.

The 33-year-old returned a positive test for trimetazidine, a drug banned because it can boost endurance, after a 2022 World Cup qualifying defeat to Cameroon on November 16.

Gbohouo, winner of the African Cup of Nations in 2015, had been provisionally suspended by his national federation in January.

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According to FIFA’s disciplinary decision seen by AFP, Gbohouo explained he took the substance unintentionally after being prescribed a drug to treat vision problems by an ophthalmologist.

The objective was “to improve his retinal blood flow”, explained the 65-time international, who “stopped the treatment himself after a month and a half” because it had not improved the problem.

Although the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) hands, in principle, a four-year suspension for a positive test, FIFA’s disciplinary commission considered he had “unintentionally” consumed the prohibited substance and had not committed a “significant” fault, reducing the sanction to 18 months from December 23, 2021.

Gbohouo can return to play on June 23, 2023.

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