Paul Pogba’s doping suspension has been cut to 18 months from an initial four years after an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

Cas confirmed on Friday that the French footballer’s four-year ban had been reduced and will now end in March 2025.

Pogba remains under contract with Juventus and could, in theory, make a return to action before the end of the season.

“The suspension is now 18 months, starting September 11, 2023,” Cas director general Matthieu Reeb confirmed to Reuters.

The France international was provisionally suspended by Italy’s national anti-doping organisation (NADO Italia) in September 2023 after testing positive for DHEA – a banned substance that raises levels of testosterone.

The 31-year-old Pogba denied any wrongdoing and said in February he would appeal to CAS.

The doping test was performed after Juventus’s 3-0 season-opening victory in Serie A at Udinese in August of 2023.

The tribunal said it had detected prohibited “non-endogenous testosterone metabolites”, adding that the results were “consistent with the exogenous (external) origin of the target compounds”.

Capped 91 times by France, Pogba had made just eight league appearances in his second stint at the Turin club after returning to Juventus from Manchester United.

He spent six seasons at Old Trafford before departing on a free transfer in 2022.

Additional reporting by Reuters