Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba could return with Juventus as early as January 2025 after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) accepted the player’s appeal and reduced his football ban from four years to 18 months.

The 31-year-old was provisionally suspended from football-related activities in September 2023 after testing positive for dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) a month earlier.

In a social media post on Friday, the World Cup winner announced that he had been informed that the verdict handed down by the National Anti-Doping Tribunal was incorrect while stating the four-year has taken his football career from him.

“I have today been informed of the Tribunale Nazionale Antidoping’s decision and believe the verdict is incorrect,” Pogba wrote on social media.

“I am sad, shocked and heartbroken that everything I have built in my professional playing career has been taken away from me.

“When I am free of legal restrictions, the full story will become clear, but I have never knowingly or deliberately taken any supplements that violate anti-doping regulations.”

In March this year, Italy’s National Anti-Doping Tribunal (TNA) agreed with the Anti-Doping Prosecutor’s Office’s request for a four-year suspension in accordance with the standard length of the ban under the World Anti-Doping Code (WADA).

The lengthy ban was potentially a career-ending punishment for Pogba, which would have kept the former French international out of football until August 2027.

Pogba maintained he was not guilty of deliberate anti-doping violations and immediately appealed with CAS.

A four-year anti-doping ban can be reduced in cases where an athlete can prove it was not intentional, was the result of contamination, or if they can provide “substantial assistance” to help investigators.

The latest verdict means Pogba can resume training in January before being eligible to play in March, the Daily Mail reported.