Paul Pogba has been banned from football for four years for a doping offence.The France and Juventus midfielder was provisionally suspended in September after testing positive for testosterone.

Pogba won the World Cup with France in 2018, two years after he became the most expensive footballer in the world when Manchester United signed him for a record £89m.Pogba, who will turn 31 in March, was an unused substitute for Juventus in a Serie A game against Udinese on 20 August when he tested positive for testosterone – a banned substance.

Italy’s national anti-doping body suspended Pogba and a request from Italy’s sports prosecutor to hand Pogba a four-year ban, the maximum punishment available to them, was granted.

Pogba is now expected to appeal the their decision at sport’s highest court, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in Switzerland, but a four-year ban could potentially spell the end of his career at the top level.

A tribunal said Pogba had violated anti-doping rules when they found the prohibited substance “non-endogenous testosterone metabolites”, adding that the results were “consistent with the exogenous origin of the target compounds”.

Through his agent, Pogba insisted following his initial suspension that he did not break the rules intentionally. By banning Pogba for four years, Italy’s anti-doping tribunal would have needed to show that the midfielder had taken a banned substance deliberately. Testosterone is a hormone that increases an athletes’ endurance and physical performance.