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Giuseppe Rossi (file pic). Francesco Pecoraro
looking ahead

Ex-Manchester United striker ready to put doping controversy in the past

Giuseppe Rossi tested positive for a banned substance in May 2018 but escaped a ban.

FORMER MAN UNITED player Giuseppe Rossi says he is ready to find another club having spent the autumn training with former side Villarreal.

The Italian was seen as a prodigy at Old Trafford as a teenager but made only five Premier League appearances for United before being sold to the La Liga outfit in 2007.

The 32-year-old, who was born in New Jersey in the US but moved to Italy aged 12 to play for Parma’s youth set-up, has struggled to settle since leaving Fiorentina in 2015, going on loan to a series of clubs in La Liga and Serie A until leaving Genoa last year.

He tested positive for a banned substance in May 2018 but escaped a ban despite pressure from Italy’s anti-doping committee.

“I am having a difficult time because after the experience in Genoa where I could not feel important and I was forced to face the doping problem,” Rossi told Correira Della Sera.

The trial went on for a long time and the negotiations [with other clubs] that had opened in the meantime waned. Now, I train with Villarreal. I don’t understand why I’m not part of a team yet.

“I think I’m a good player. I am recovered physically and mentally, I am ready to return to the player I used to be.

“The worst days were the two or three after the injuries, when I had to phone my mom to tell her that I had hurt myself.

Certainly the most traumatic injury was when I was at Fiorentina in 2014. I broke the cruciate ligament of the right knee when I was, at that stage, top scorer in Serie A.”

Rossi played 30 times for Italy between 2008-14, but was left out of the squad when the team reached the Euro 2012 final.

He last played for the national team in 2014 in a 2-2 draw at home to Armenia but was not selected for their World Cup squad that year and called time on his international career shortly afterwards.

He scored only once for Genoa in 10 games during the 2017-18 season in Serie A.

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