Xavier to fight on

Middlesbrough defender Abel Xavier is stepping up his campaign to save his career after discovering his drugs test failure has been confirmed.

The 32-year-old former Portugal international has pleaded his innocence since learning the sample he gave after Boro’s 0-0 UEFA Cup draw with Skoda Xanthi on September 29 had tested positive for a banned substance.

UEFA confirmed today that Xavier’s B sample has also proved positive and that his case will be heard by their control and disciplinary board later his month.

“The sample B is positive, it’s confirmed,” said a UEFA spokesman. “The control and disciplinary board of UEFA will judge his case at a hearing which has been provisionally set for November 17, but the date is not yet confirmed.”

UEFA have not revealed the identity of the substance involved, but reports have claimed it is the anabolic steroid Dianabol.

Boro were not commenting on the matter today, and there was no word either from the Xavier camp, although it is understood he will continue to deny any intentional wrongdoing after working to build up a dossier of evidence to support his claim.

Manager Steve McClaren and his club have backed the player from the off and privately continue to do so, although the rules dictate that he is ultimately responsible for whatever substances are found in his body and, unless he can provide a credible explanation, faces a lengthy suspension.

If found guilty, Xavier, who has been suspended since the failed test was confirmed, is likely to face a year on the sidelines for a first offence.

That would effectively end his spell on Teesside as he only signed a short-term contract following a successful trial.

He was signed as a replacement for Dutch international right-back Michael Reiziger, who was allowed to leave the club for PSV Eindhoven in August, with promising youngster Tony McMahon on the long-term casualty list with a shoulder problem.

Stuart Parnaby is currently Boro’s only recognised specialist right-back and has started six of the last seven games, although McClaren has recently adopted a 3-5-2 formation which has seen him play as a wing-back.

Xavier was stunned to learn of his test failure last month and swiftly promised to clear his name.

“I am convinced that there is a reasonable and entirely harmless explanation for such a positive finding, should it be confirmed by the analysis of the B-sample,” he said in a statement released through his lawyers at the time.

“Given the fact that the anti-doping regulations establish a purely objective responsibility (the athlete is guilty as of the moment when the most minor trace of a prohibited substance is found in his body), I currently have – and this is not easy – to furnish scientific and factual proof to establish that if a prohibited substance is found in my body, this is by no means because I would have had the intention to ’dope’ myself.

“I have never had this intention.”