Three More North Korea Players Fail Drug Test

Five North Korean players have now tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid at the Women's World Cup in Germany

Song Jong-Sun and Jong Pok-Sim were found to have taken steroids during the tournament and were provisionally suspended before North Korea's final Group C game with Columbia. This triggered FIFA to test the entire squad which revealed three more positive results.

FIFA's chief physician, Jiri Dvorak, said it was "a clear case of using prohibited substances."

He was told by the Korean doctor that the players had been given traditional Chinese medicine, before testing confirmed the sample contained 14 different types of steroids, four of which are banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Sepp Blatter confirmed the players had tested positive for steroids at a news conference in Frankfurt but the names of the three new players to have tested positive have not yet been released by FIFA.

The FIFA president condemned the incident a "very serious case of doping".

North Korea weren't the only side affected by doping during the FIFA women's World Cup, their Group C opponents Colombia had one player suspended. Yineth Varon tested positive after an out-of-competition doping test in Leverkusen on 25th June.