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Fabio Cannavaro has been cleared of any doping offence by the Italian Olympic Committee.

The Juventus defender has maintained his innocence throughout, despite failing a drugs test at the end of August.

The Italy international was given an emergency injection by Juve officials after he suffered a reaction when stung by a bee.

However the injection contained the banned substance cortisone. Juventus thought they had avoided any further problem when they submitted a request for medical exemption, but their application was missing a document.

Despite the case being dropped, the defender was still unhappy with the way he had been treated by certain sections of the media.

“This is busting my balls and if you didn’t understand me well enough I’ll repeat, this is busting my balls,” he told reporters.

“I have a clean conscience. Someone gets stung by a bee and then he finds themselves in the newspapers as if he had doped.

“When that happened I thought I was dreaming. Some newspapers and television stations went too far.

“It’s the second time I’ve found myself in the newspapers for a story of this type.”

Cannavaro was first caught out while with Parma when he allowed cameras to film him receiving a substance via a drip.

Although the substance was not illegal the 36-year-old admitted that he had learned lessons from the experience.

“That time it was stupid to allow myself to be filmed, even if the substance wasn’t banned,” he added.

“This time it was Juventus’s mistake but it was still blown out of all proportion.

“I hope this doubt won’t follow me now, my career has been exemplary and always conducted within the rules.”

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