Peru captain Paolo Guerrero cleared to play despite drug ban

Peru captain Paolo Guerrero can play at this summer’s World Cup after a Swiss tribunal ruled on his drug ban.
The court agreed on Thursday to temporarily lift a 14-month suspension, imposed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), while it considered the 34-year-old striker’s appeal.
The captains of Peru’s Group C rivals Australia, Denmark and France wrote to FIFA asking them to lift the ban.
Guerrero tested positive for prohibited substance, cocaine, in October.
The sample was taken after Peru’s World Cup qualifier against Argentina, and Guerrero – who insisted the positive test was the result of drinking contaminated tea – was initially banned for 12 months by FIFA.
That suspension was then halved by FIFA’s appeal committee but the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) appealed to Cas and, less than two weeks after his six-month ban ended in May, they extended it to 14 months.
A Swiss tribunal has now ruled that the extension was “unjustified” and is “provisionally deprived of effect”, leaving Guerrero free to play in Russia.
Peru won a play-off against New Zealand in November to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1982. (BBC Sport)