Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana has been suspended from all football activities for 12 months after failing drugs test.
The goalkeeper took an out-of-competition test in October last year, and banned substance furosemide was detected in his urine. The ban applies to all football activities.
Onana’s club issued a statement on their website saying: “On the morning of October 30, Onana was not feeling well. He wanted to take a tablet for that. Unconsciously, however, he took Lasimac, a drug that his wife had previously been prescribed.
“Onana made a mistake about the product, mistakenly taking his wife’s medicine, ultimately resulting in this measure taken by UEFA against the goalkeeper. In addition, the disciplinary body of the football association declared that he had no intention of cheating.
“However, the European Football Association believes, on the basis of the anti-doping rules in force, that an athlete has a duty at all times to ensure that no banned substances enter the body.”
However, Ajax and Onana will appeal against the one year ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The club’s managing director Edwin van der Sar said: “We explicitly renounce performance-enhancing means, we obviously stand for a clean sport.
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“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 twelve months, because it was arguably not intended to strengthen his body and thus improve his performance.”
