Cristian Volpato Faces Off-Field Crisis After Positive Cocaine Test

Socceroos rising star Cristian Volpato has returned a second positive test for cocaine after being stopped on Sydney’s Anzac Bridge in July, plunging one of Australian football’s brightest young talents into an off-field storm.

The Sydney Morning Herald revealed the development on Wednesday, with Football Australia moving quickly to respond.

“We are currently seeking independent verification,” a spokesperson said, as the governing body braces for the fallout around a player who only months ago lit up a World Cup campaign.

NSW Police later confirmed the details in a statement to nine.com.au.

“He was subjected to a roadside drug test which allegedly returned a positive result for cocaine,” police said of the incident on the night of July 21.

“A secondary sample of oral fluid was taken for further analysis.

“Following inquiries, on Tuesday 1 September 2026, a 22-year-old man was issued a Traffic Infringement Notice for drive motor vehicle with illicit drug present in oral fluid etc with a $722 fine.”

Volpato’s camp digs in

Volpato has not accepted the allegation quietly.

His lawyer, Paul McGirr, told the Herald he is weighing up an appeal against the infringement, stressing his client’s insistence that he has never knowingly taken the drug.

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

According to the Herald, Volpato has told people close to him he believes his drink may have been spiked that night.

The case now sits in a tense holding pattern: a completed police process, a fine issued, a player denying any deliberate use, and Football Australia waiting on independent confirmation before deciding its next move.

Speeding, suspension and a long flight out

The cocaine matter is only part of a chaotic night that has already cost Volpato his licence.

The 22-year-old has had his international driver’s licence suspended for six months after being clocked at almost 50km/h over the speed limit on July 21.

He was stopped twice in the same spot on the Anzac Bridge in one night while driving a BMW, telling police he had been at a party in Sydney’s CBD.

Within hours of being charged, he was gone.

The following day, Volpato boarded a flight to Italy to rejoin Serie A club Sassuolo, where his football had been doing most of the talking.

From form in Italy to a cruel hamstring blow

On the pitch, the start of his season in Italy underlined why Australia fought so hard for his allegiance.

Volpato has scored two goals in Sassuolo’s first five games of the campaign, a sharp return that reinforced his status as one of the most gifted young attackers in the Australian system.

That momentum stalled over the weekend when he suffered a hamstring injury, a setback that now intersects awkwardly with his off-field issues.

The injury is expected to rule him out of contention for the Socceroos squad to face Brazil in Queensland later this month, removing one selection headache for coach Tony Popovic while raising a different kind of concern.

“These young men, things happen and you can get caught for something that we have to look into,” Popovic told reporters on Tuesday.

“There is a process that’s playing out at the moment about that, and we need to follow that process.”

For now, that is exactly what Football Australia must do: wait, verify, and then decide how to handle a case involving a player central to its long-term plans.

A prized talent under scrutiny

Volpato’s rapid rise has been one of Australian football’s big stories of the year.

He turned his back on Italy to commit to the Socceroos, then delivered a breakout World Cup campaign that seemed to signal the arrival of a new attacking leader for the national team.

Now, barely months later, his name sits in police statements and legal arguments instead of just match reports and highlight reels.

The talent remains. The question is how this episode shapes the next chapter of a career Australia can ill afford to see derailed.