ROME, Nov 16: Lazio’s Dutch defender Jaap Stam has tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone, the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) said here Friday.

Stam, who controversially left Manchester United for Lazio for US$22 million in August, was tested following the Oct 14 match between Lazio and Atalanta.

In line with regulations the CONI laid down last June, Stam is now suspended with immediate effect.

The B test, which used to follow on automatically from the first test, will now only take place at the player’s request.

The CONI laboratory in Rome detected traces of norandrosterone and noretiocolanolone, both derivatives of nandrolone in the Dutch defender’s urine sample.

The 29-year-old Stam is the latest in a line of professional footballers who have tested positive for the drug - and he is not the first from Lazio.

Last season, the club’s Portuguese international captain Fernando Couto was banned by FIFA for ten months after he also failed a test for nandrolone but later had the suspension reduced to four months.

FIFA also banned Juventus star Edgar Davids while, last June, Italian football chiefs suspended Parma defender Stefano Torrisi for the same reason.

But Davids, who tested positive last March, had his original five-month ban reduced in September by a month by the Italian authorities.—AFP