Ivory Coast will be without their No.1 goalkeeper Sylvain Gbohouo at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) after a drugs ban was confirmed by Fifa.
Gbohouo, who plays club football in Ethiopia at Wolkite City, had been provisionally suspended after testing positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication that the World Anti-Doping Agency categorises as a stimulant.
The announcement was made by the Ethiopian Football Federation on the eve of the tournament but the Ivorians included him in their squad for Afcon, hoping to have the ban lifted after providing an explanation ahead of their Group E opener against Equatorial Guinea in Douala yesterday.
But Fifa’s disciplinary committee upheld the suspension and allowed 20 days to lodge a formal appeal.
Today’s Afcon fixtures: Cameroon v Ethiopia (6pm), Cape Verde v Burkina Faso (9pm)