Cristian Volpato’s Second Drug Test Confirms Cocaine Positive

Cristian Volpato’s insistence that a roadside drug test had thrown up a false positive has been rocked by a second result confirming the presence of cocaine.

The Socceroos midfielder, one of Australia’s breakout performers at this year’s World Cup, has spent weeks denying he ever took the drug after a late-July traffic stop on Sydney’s Anzac Bridge. He told those close to him he believed his drink had been spiked while out celebrating a friend’s birthday in the CBD on July 21.

The fresh laboratory analysis of his oral fluid says otherwise.

NSW Police confirmed a secondary oral sample taken from Volpato last week again tested positive for cocaine. He has been issued a traffic infringement notice and fined $722.

The 22-year-old had already paid a heavy price on the road. He lost his international driver’s licence for six months after being clocked in a BMW at almost 50km/h over the speed limit – at the same stretch of Anzac Bridge where he had been fined for speeding just two hours earlier – on the eve of the Italian Serie A season.

From Sydney scandal to Serie A form

Volpato flew back to Italy the day after the incident and slipped straight into club mode with Sassuolo. On the pitch, he responded. Two goals in the first five matches of the season underlined why he has been viewed as one of Australia’s most exciting attacking prospects.

His momentum stalled at the weekend.

In Sassuolo’s 2-2 draw with Bologna, Volpato limped off in the 38th minute with a hamstring injury. The timing is brutal for the national team. That setback is expected to rule him out of Australia’s looming friendlies against Brazil in Queensland later this month, sparing coach Tony Popovic and Football Australia from an immediate call on his selection while the drug saga unfolds.

For now, the decision is postponed, not erased.

Legal challenge on the table

Off the field, the battle is only just beginning. Volpato’s lawyer, Paul McGirr, signalled the player is weighing up an appeal against the fine and the test result.

“Our client has never touched cocaine and strenuously denies consuming it ever,” McGirr said.

He pointed to steps Volpato took immediately after the roadside stop. The midfielder went to a medical facility and undertook a voluntary urinalysis, which, McGirr said, showed no traces of cocaine, other drugs or alcohol.

Any appeal would drill into how the roadside sample was taken and whether contamination could have played a role.

“We want to look at how it was done,” McGirr said, flagging a challenge to the methods used in the initial test.

Conflicting tests, rising scrutiny

The picture has grown more complicated since Volpato returned to Italy. Sassuolo said in a statement, issued days after news of his initial positive result, that the midfielder had undergone further urine and blood tests on his return to the club. Those, the club said, came back negative.

Cocaine, though, can clear from blood and urine within days, making timing critical. It remains unclear exactly when Sassuolo’s internal tests were carried out.

Football Australia confirmed it had been informed of the reported secondary oral test result and is moving cautiously.

“We are currently seeking independent verification,” it said in a statement.

National team waits as process unfolds

Before the second positive result became public, Popovic was already fielding questions about whether Volpato had breached team standards. He chose his words carefully.

“These young men, things happen and you can get caught for something that we have to look into,” Popovic said on Tuesday. “There is a process that’s playing out at the moment about that, and we need to follow that process.”

That process now carries more weight, and more urgency.

For Volpato, the story has split in two: a rising career in Serie A and with the Socceroos, and a legal and reputational fight that will shape how he is viewed at home and abroad. The next move – appeal or acceptance – will say plenty about how he plans to navigate the biggest off-field test of his young career.