Paolo Guerrero, Peru’s national soccer team captain, told Xinhua news that since he only had ten days to prepare for the FIFA World Cup in Russia last year and he was “far below his best for the football’s showpiece tournament”.
Guerrero had been banned for 14 months after testing positive for cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine in a World Cup qualifier in October 2017. It was then lifted after a series of appeals, which made it possible for him to participate in the World Cup.
However, the ban was removed just two weeks before Peru had to play and Guerrero feels that he didn’t have time to prepare for it.
“They took me out of the World Cup. Because as far as I’m concerned, I didn’t play in the World Cup. I didn’t play because I had just ten days of preparation. I was training alone in a park. European players went into the tournament with 70 games under their belt for the season. I played three”, he said, according to China.org.cn.
Since the ban was completely lifted a month ago and since then he has scored four goals in six matches with his team in Brazil Internacional.
Guerrero, who now plays his club football for Brazil’s Internacional, has scored four goals in six matches since returning from his ban last month.
