Cristian Volpato Faces Second Positive Cocaine Test After Anzac Bridge Incident
Socceroos rising star Cristian Volpato is at the centre of a mounting off-field storm, with a second sample returning a positive test for cocaine following a late-night traffic stop on Sydney’s Anzac Bridge in July.
The Sydney Morning Herald revealed the development on Wednesday, prompting Football Australia to move quickly into damage-control mode.
“We are currently seeking independent verification,” a Football Australia spokesperson said, as the governing body works to understand the full extent of the case and its implications for the 22-year-old midfielder.
NSW Police later confirmed the details in a statement provided to nine.com.au.
“He was subjected to a roadside drug test which allegedly returned a positive result for cocaine,” the statement read of the incident on the night of July 21.
“A secondary sample of oral fluid was taken for further analysis.
“Following inquiries, on Tuesday 1 September 2026, a 22-year-old man was issued a Traffic Infringement Notice for drive motor vehicle with illicit drug present in oral fluid etc with a $722 fine.”
Volpato’s legal team has already signalled it will not let the matter rest there.
“Our client has never touched cocaine and strenuously denies consuming it ever,” his lawyer Paul McGirr told the Herald, adding that an appeal against the infringement notice is under consideration.
According to the Herald, Volpato has told those close to him he believes his drink may have been spiked on the night in question.
High speed, heavy consequences
The drug infringement lands on top of an already serious traffic breach from the same night.
Volpato has had his international driver’s licence suspended for six months after he was clocked driving almost 50km/h over the speed limit on Anzac Bridge on July 21.
He was stopped twice in the same spot on the one night while driving a BMW across the bridge, telling police he had been returning from a party in Sydney’s CBD.
Within 24 hours of being charged, Volpato boarded a flight to Italy to rejoin Serie A club Sassuolo, where his form had started to match the hype that followed his World Cup breakout.
Club form and fresh injury blow
On the pitch, the start to his season in Italy underlined why Australian football has invested so much hope in him. Volpato scored two goals in Sassuolo’s first five games of the campaign, showing flashes of the creativity and composure that lit up Australia’s World Cup run earlier this year.
That momentum has stalled.
Over the weekend, the attacking midfielder suffered a hamstring injury, another setback that arrives just as the off-field scrutiny intensifies. The injury is expected to rule him out of contention for the Socceroos’ high-profile clashes with Brazil in Queensland later this month.
National team coach Tony Popovic, speaking before the latest test result became public, acknowledged both the promise and the problems surrounding one of his brightest young options.
“These young men, things happen and you can get caught for something that we have to look into,” Popovic said on Tuesday.
“There is a process that’s playing out at the moment about that, and we need to follow that process.”
Future under the spotlight
Volpato’s story was supposed to be a clean-cut tale of a prodigy choosing green and gold over Azzurri blue. He turned his back on Italy to pledge allegiance to Australia and quickly became one of the headline acts of the Socceroos’ World Cup campaign, hailed as one of the country’s best young talents.
Now his name sits in police statements and legal arguments as much as in match reports.
The talent is not in question. The next few months will reveal how much damage this off-field chapter does to the trajectory of a career Australia had hoped would define a generation.
