The Malta FA Medical Committee is currently dealing with a doping case after a Maltese player of a Premier League club failed a drugs test.

The positive dope test was among the main topics discussed during a meeting of the Malta FA Executive Committee earlier this week. After evaluating the findings of the initial test, it was decided to refer the matter to the association's Medical Committee.

Sources have told The Times that the player was among those subjected to a random dope test after a match involving two teams currently lying in the lower end of the league standings. The game took place last month.

The player, who has reportedly returned a positive test for a recreational drug, has requested an analysis of his B sample.

His club have been notified about the positive test but they will be able to field the player under investigation this weekend as the Malta FA have yet to impose a sanction.

The last cases of doping in the local game caused a furore outside Maltese shores after football's ruling body FIFA and the international World Anti-Doping Agency challenged the bans handed out to three players on the basis that the MFA sanctions were too lenient at the time.

In February 2009, the Court of Arbitration for Sport eventually ruled that the four-month and nine-month bans imposed on Claude Mattocks, a Valletta player at the time, and Ryan Grech, of Tarxien Rainbows, be extended to one year. Gilbert Martin's one-year ban was confirmed by CAS.

FIFA and WADA had asked CAS to ban the three players for two years but their requests were only partially upheld by the Lausanne-based arbitration body.

The action by FIFA and WADA led the Malta FA to temporarily suspend its dope testing programme but this was resumed at the start of this season.