Joao Pedro suspended indefinitely after failed drug test
The Brazilian becomes the second Serie A player to be banned for a failed doping test this season.
Cagliari forward Joao Pedro has been banned indefinitely by Italy’s national anti-doping organisation (NADO Italia) after testing positive for a banned substance.
The Brazilian failed a doping test following the goalless draw between Cagliari and Sassuolo on February 11 after the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide was found in his sample.
NADO Italia issued a statement on their official website on Friday morning, it read: “The first section of the TNA (national anti-doping court), in accepting the petition proposed by the National Anti-Doping Prosecutor’s Office, has proceeded to suspend Joao Pedro Gerardino Dos Santos Galvao, who was found positive for the substance hydrochlorothiazide following a check made by NADO Italia at the end of the Serie A match between Cagliari and Sassuolo on February 11, 2018.”
Pedro is the second Serie A player to be suspended this season after Benevento captain Fabio Lucioni was given a one-year ban for the use of the steroid clostebol, which was reportedly applied to heal a cut in September.
The club doctor who administered the spray on Lucioni, Walter Giorgione, was also handed a four-year suspension.
