Paul Pogba’s doping suspension has been cut to 18 months from an initial four years, the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) said on Friday.

“The suspension is now 18 months, starting 11 September 2023,” the Cas director general, Matthieu Reeb,said.

The France international was provisionally suspended by Italy’s national anti-doping organisation (Nado Italia) in September 2023 after testing positive for DHEA – a banned substance that raises levels of testosterone.

The 31-year-old, who has a contract with Juventus until June 2026, denied any wrongdoing and said in February he would appeal to Cas. The doping test was performed after Juventus’s 3-0 season opening victory in Serie A at Udinese on 20 August 2023.

The tribunal said it had detected prohibited “non-endogenous testosterone metabolites”, adding that the results were “consistent with the exogenous (external) origin of the target compounds”.

At the time the ban was issued Pogba’s agent Rafaela Pimenta told Sky Sports News: “Paul never wanted to break the rules.”

On Friday Pogba, who said he would tell his full story “when I am free of legal restrictions”, posted a picture on social media of a close-up of him in football boots and personalised PP6 socks embroidered with the France flag and two stars (representing their World Cup wins) with an hourglass emoji.

“Finally the nightmare is over. I can look forward to the day when I can follow my dreams again,” the player said in a statement. “I always stated that I never knowingly breached world anti-doping agency regulations when I took a nutritional supplement prescribed to me by a doctor, which does not affect or enhance the performance of male athletes.

“This has been a hugely distressing period in my life because everything I have worked so hard for has been put on hold.”