The 28-year-old tested positive in February for the banned drug furosemide.
Saudi striker Fahd Al-Muwallad was excluded from his country’s squad for the 2022 World Cup hosted by Qatar on Sunday, as a “precautionary measure”, following failing a doping test earlier this year.
The 28-year-old Saudi youth team player tested positive in February for the banned drug furosemide, which can be used as a masking agent to prevent the discovery of doping.
Al-Muwallad was banned from playing for 18 months last May by the Saudi Anti-Doping Committee.
Despite this, the Saudi Center for Sports Arbitration relaxed the ban in late August and determined that the period during which the ban had been served was sufficient.
But the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has appealed the decision, and according to local media reports, a longer ban is expected for the 28-year-old, who was banned from playing in 2019 for one year, also for doping.
The World Anti-Doping Agency referred it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport has yet to issue a ruling.
The Saudi national team said on its Twitter account that “following reviewing the latest developments in the WADA’s appeal” and following consulting with Saudi lawyers, coach Hervé Renard decided to exclude Al-Muwallad as a “precautionary measure”.
Renard used midfielder Nawaf Al-Abed, who also plays for Al-Shabab, as a substitute for Al-Mowallad.
Saudi Arabia comes in Group C alongside Argentina, Mexico and Poland in the finals, and opens its tournament once morest Argentina on November 22.
