Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana has been suspended for 12 months by UEFA after he failed a doping test last October.
The suspension is effective as of February 5, and will apply to all football activities at both national and international level.
An out-of-competition check found Furosemide in the Cameroon international’s urine, but Ajax claim Onana took it “unwittingly” after feeling unwell.
“On the morning of 30th October, Onana did not feel well. He wanted to take a tablet. Unwittingly, however, he took Lasimac, a drug that his wife had previously been prescribed,” an Ajax statement said.
“Onana made a mistake with the product and mistakenly took his wife’s medicine, which ultimately led to UEFA’s action against the goalkeeper. The football association’s disciplinary body ruled that he did not intend to cheat. However, the European Football Association believes that, according to the prevailing anti-doping rules, an athlete has a duty at all times to ensure that no prohibited substances enter the body.”
Ajax’s managing director Edwin van der Sar iterated the club’s support for the Cameroonian International.
“We explicitly renounce performance-enhancing drugs; we stand for a clean sport. 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 many years and is very popular with the fans. We had hoped for a conditional suspension or a much shorter one than this twelve months, because it was demonstrably not meant to strengthen his body and thus improve his performance.”
Ajax said they would appeal the ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Ajax currently lead the way in the Eredivisie, holding a seven-point lead over PSV Eindhoven, while in the Europa League they face Lille in the round of 32 later this month.
The loss of Onana, unless the ban is overturned, will come as a huge blow given the goalkeeper has been an integral member of the side for five years.
He is banned from all football, meaning he will not be available for Ajax’s domestic or European matches, including their Europa League campaign this season.
He will also be unavailable for Cameroon until February 2022, including the Africa Cup of Nations – should they qualify – which has been rescheduled to January next year. The final two games of their qualifying campaign are in March, away to Cape Verde and home to Rwanda.
After coming through the ranks at Barcelona, Onana joined Ajax in 2015, and this season he had kept nine clean sheets in 20 league games.
He also played every minute of their Champions League group-stage campaign, where they finished third behind Liverpool and Atalanta to drop down to the Europa League.
It adds to a bad week for Ajax, also to confirm that record signing Sebastian Haller is unavailable for their Europa League fixtures for the rest of the season after an administration error meant he was not registered in their squad in time.
They are also set to lose promising young striker, Brian Brobbey in the summer, which it confirmed this week that the 19-year-old will not sign a new contract with the club.
