Zinedine Zidane did not appear in court on Monday to answer questions in a drug trial of two high-ranking Juventus officials accused of giving players banned substances.
It was the second time in less than a month that the Real Madrid star, who was Juventus’ midfield mastermind between 1996 and 2001, did not answer a court summons.
Judge Giuseppe Casalbore read a letter from the 2003 Fifa player of year that explained Zidane was busy with ”professional commitments”.
Real Madrid host second-division Eibar on Tuesday in a Copa del Rey match.
The letter said Zidane would be available for a hearing via video conference or telephone, or in Spain.
Juventus CEO Antonio Giraudo and team doctor Riccardo Agricola are accused of giving players banned substances in the 1990s.
Agricola has told the court that all the drugs were administered for players’ health, not to improve illicitly their performances.
”The drugs being contested are also widely used by other soccer teams,” Agricola said on Monday, according to the news agency Ansa.
AC Milan striker Filippo Inzaghi, who left Juventus in 2001, and Uruguayan defender Paolo Montero did appear in court on Monday.
Montero, who refused to answer questions in the last hearing in December because he felt intimidated by the presence of numerous TV cameras, was seated with his back to the large media contingent this time.
He said he took creatine, a permitted nutritional supplement, and had forgotten the names of certain other drugs he had listed in previous sessions with prosecutors and during routine antidoping tests.
”The team doctor listed everything anyway,” Montero was quoted as saying by Ansa.
The next hearing in the case was scheduled for January 26. — Sapa-AP