Dutch captain Frank de Boer had his one-year ban for a failed drug test slashed by UEFA today and he can now resume playing on September 1.
The 31-year-old defender had been suspended on June 14 for 12 months. He will miss only one game for his club Barcelona as the Spanish season begins on August 25/26.
The successful appeal will come as a blow to Mick McCarthy, as the influential defender will now be eligible to line out for the Dutch side who visit Lansdowne Road on September 1st for Ireland's crunch World Cup qualifier.
De Boer had denied deliberately taking the banned steroid nandrolone after testing positive following Barcelona's UEFA Cup quarter-final against Celta Vigo on March 15.
Europe's ruling soccer body heard his appeal on Thursday and de Boer said earlier on Friday he believed tablets given to him by Barcelona to boost his white blood cells could have caused the positive test.
In a statement the Appeals Body said contaminated food supplements were probably to blame for the positive test.
"Objectively there was a doping offence ie the allowed concentration of 19-Norandrosterone ... was clearly exceeded.
"It is more than likely that the appellant took the prohibited substances by means of contaminated food supplements," UEFA said.
But UEFA said it was up to an individual athlete to monitor his food intake.