An acrimonious legal battle between Mamadou Sakho and the World Anti-Doping Agency was looming on Monday night after the latter refused to rule out appealing against Uefa’s decision to clear the player of taking a banned substance.

Wada was facing being sued by Sakho and Liverpool over the extraordinary chain of events which led to the France defender being judged to have failed a drugs test and forced him to miss the Europa League final and European Championship.

On Friday, Uefa’s control, ethics and disciplinary body absolved Sakho of taking a performance-enhancing substance after a near four-month battle by the player to clear his name.