Turin: World Footballer of the Year Zinedine Zidane said on Monday he had taken the legal performance-enhancing drug creatine while at Juventus during an ongoing investigation into whether the club’s managers administered banned drugs.

Juventus general manager Antonio Giraudo and club doctor Riccardo Agricola are accused of administering banned drugs to players between 1994 and 1998. Both have denied the allegations.

“I only took creatine at Juventus. I didn’t take it before in France nor do I take it now in Spain,” Zidane told the trial.

Zidane said he had also taken iron and vitamins at Juventus, sometimes intravenously. “They’re useful if you’re playing 70 matches a year,” he said.

Zidane, a World Cup winner with France in 1998, played for Juventus from 1996 until 2001 when he joined Real Madrid. Last year he told a newspaper he had taken creatine at Juventus.

Creatine is an amino acid which occurs naturally in the body and plays a key role in muscle contraction. It is not on the IOC list of banned drugs but its use is outlawed by some federations and various players and coaches say it should be banned. (Reuters)