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Liverpool centre-back Mamadou Sakho is not challenging UEFA after he failed their drugs test for a banned fat-burning substance, the Guardian reports.
According to their article, he’s accepting the findings and did not request a B-sample – something athletes protesting innocence do automatically.
Liverpool and the player have agreed to a mutual suspension from playing at this point, although UEFA are technically allowing him to compete until the investigation is complete. Still, that means he will not travel to Villarreal for our Europa League semi-final on Thursday, and is a certainty to miss the rest of the campaign as well.
The Guardian theorise that because Sakho’s accepting the results of his A-sample, his inevitable suspension will begin earlier – thus meaning he’ll be back in action sooner.
The ban for first purposeful drugs violation is four years, and two for accidental – but Sakho’s expected to claim mitigating factors which could bring the length down further. Even so, his spot in France’s Euro 2016 squad looks ruined.
Liverpool team-mate Kolo Toure received a six month ban for taking his wife’s diet pills in 2011, and a similar ban would see Sakho out until just before Christmas.
The Telegraph revealed earlier in the week that Sakho was dropped from Brendan Rodgers’ early Liverpool squads this season because of a weight issue.