More drug test shame for Mutu

Mutu: Failed third drug test

Related links

Teams

• Fiorentina
• Lazio

Also see

• Watch on your PC
• Serie A fixtures
• Serie A stats

Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu has failed a third drug test, according to the Italian Olympic Committee.

News broke on Thursday that the Romanian forward had tested positive for traces of sibutramine, an anti-obesity drug, after a Serie A clash against Bari on January 10th.

But fresh details from the CONI have revealed Mutu also had the same substance in his system during Viola's Coppa Italia quarter-final win over Lazio ten days later.

Italy's National Anti-doing Tribunal (TNA) have provisionally suspended the 31-year-old following his latest drugs misuse and the ex Juventus and Chelsea front man faces the prospect of a ban up to four years .

Fiorentina insists they had nothing to do with the administration of the banned substance but have stood by the striker with Viola sporting director Pantaleo Corvino telling Sky Italia. "It's a situation that leaves us astonished, but we believe in the player's good faith.

Replay

Lazio president Claudio Lotito has confirmed the Biancocelesti are to request the quarter-final clash to be replayed in light of the recent news but he does not expect to get much joy.

"The match must be annulled," he told Italian press.

"Anyway it appears absolutely improbable that a similar request will be accepted, because it never happened that a game in which a player had been tested positive, has been re-played."

Meanwhile, reports in Romania have speculated that Mutu could have accidently been given the drug by his mother.

She told Telesport: "Maybe he took them out of curiosity as I had boasted about losing weight.

"But in any case, the box says they are a natural product that contains no banned substances."

Mutu first drugs misuse saw him sacked by Chelsea in 2004 after he tested postive for cocaine and the Blues are have since being trying sue the striker for breaching his contract.