Xavier determined to beat ban
Middlesbrough defender Abel Xavier has vowed to fight his 18-month drugs ban in court after testing positive for an anabolic steroid.
The Portuguese full-back, 33, is expected to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to contest UEFA’s guilty verdict, which was delivered in November and upheld on appeal to European football’s governing body in December.
Xavier became the first Premiership player to be found guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs when a routine test last September showed the presence of methandienone, also known as dianabol, a steroid mainly used by body-builders.
He told Sky Sports News: “I will appeal. At this moment I have the right to go to a civil court because I just want a fair and common sense decision.
“I will fight. I will go to the end, like I’ve done before, because at this moment I cannot work and I think it was very, very severe, an 18-month ban.”
He is being given little chance of succeeding in an appeal, however, with Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor stating: “Abel continues to protest his innocence and he has a right of course to go the civil court, but I think it’s going to be an extremely difficult case to turn around now.”
