Kolo Toure ready to challenge for Manchester City place after ban

Posted Saturday, September 03, 2011 by theguardian.com

• Defender on the comeback trail after six-month absence
• I feel as fit as I've ever been in my life, he says

The Manchester City defender Kolo Touré has served a six-month drug ban and will now be available to Roberto Mancini.

Kolo Touré says he is ready to challenge for an immediate return to the Manchester City side after completing a six-month drug ban.

The defender served the suspension after being found guilty of taking a banned substance, bendroflumethiazide, contained in water tablets he had obtained from his wife. That ban ended on Friday, although Touré had been given dispensation to train with his City team-mates over the past fortnight, which has helped him to get fit enough to push for a quick recall. City's next game is against Wigan Athletic on 10 September, when they will look to make it four league wins from four.

"I feel totally recharged and as fit as I've ever been in my life," the defender told City's website. "Hopefully, it will be like having a new signing because I am back and want to challenge for a first-team place. I know it won't be easy because the team is playing so well, but I'll be pushing hard for an opportunity. I'm just so happy to be back and I will give everything I have to the team, this club and our fans. I can't wait to get going."

The Ivory Coast international who, unlike the new signing Owen Hargreaves, has been named in the City squad for Champions League group matches, is thought to be lacking in match sharpness but otherwise in fine condition.

Touré had admitted taking the banned substance and has now recalled the moment in early March when the matter came to light.

"I remember it clearly. I was at home when the club doctor and [the manager] Roberto Mancini came in to explain what had happened.

"It was a shock to see them there and I immediately realised the implications for my career, the club and my family. It was an awful moment because I didn't know what was going to happen.

"The manager asked me: 'Kolo, do you take any tablet that makes you go to the toilet?' I said 'yes', and that's when we realised it was the water tablet. I have been really unlucky, I am not that kind of person."

Touré is now in the midst of a two‑year period in which he will be target-tested for doping offences. He missed out on City's FA Cup final victory over Stoke City in May but at the time the sanction was handed down, he appeared relieved that the ban was not prohibitive to him continuing his career at Eastlands.

Christopher Quinlan QC, who had headed the Football Association commission which banned Touré, said he was fully satisfied the defender "did not intend to enhance sporting performance or to mask the use of a performance enhancing substance".

The former Arsenal player revealed how he had to explain carefully to his upset daughter about the detail of the case, after her school friends spoke about Touré's ban.

"When people say drugs in Africa, it's not quite the same as here when it could mean prescription drugs, so I had to explain to her what had actually happened," Touré said.

"She said that people in school had told her 'Your daddy is taking drugs'. That's what really hurt me. There is a difference between the diet pill that I took and a drug. Young kids see 'drug' and think about cocaine, think about bad things."

Touré paid tribute to a host of people who had offered him support during his ban. His brother and City team-mate, Yaya, who joined the club from Barcelona in the summer of 2010, was among those praised by the 30-year-old, as was the Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, whom he played under for seven years.

"Yaya has been incredible and as brothers this has brought us even closer," Kolo Touré said. "He was always there for me and kept me informed of what was happening at the club.

"I must also thank the manager, my team-mates, the staff and particularly [City's chief executive] Garry Cook and our chairman, Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, for standing by me and helping me through this period. It's at times like this you know who your friends are and I'd also like to thank people like Arsène Wenger, too.

"And I will try and repay our amazing supporters for all their good wishes, kind words and support."