Messina have failed with their appeal against a suspension for Marco Zanchi.
Messina have failed with their appeal against a suspension for Marco Zanchi.The defender tested positive for Metilprednisolon after Messina's game with Lazio at the end of August.
Both the club and player insist it was an anti-inflammatory taken to cure a muscle problem, but he now faces a long ban of up to 12 months after the Italian Federal Commission upheld the original decision from the Italian Disciplinary Committee.
Now Messina are preparing a final appeal to the Italian Olympic Committee, which they will lodge on Monday.
Zanchi himself is furious that Messina's medical staff did not inform the anti-doping committee that he had taken the drug - which would have cleared him of any indiscretion.
"It would have been enough if they had said a week before to the committee that I used an anti-inflammatory," Zanchi told Gazzetta dello Sport.
"It was normal therapy, and a fax would have been enough - nothing else.
"I now wait for the Olympic Committee's decision - but this suspension has arrived because of bureaucracy problems.
"I have never used doping substances."
