WORLD CUP 2018 INCA TRIAL

Peru skipper Guerrero’s journey to Russia could be the strangest ever..

from the finals, having experienced a truly fantastic journey to get there.

But it was only the late interventions of his colleagues in the group – Denmark’s Simon Kjaer, Australia’s Mile Jedinak and France’s Hugo Lloris – that helped Guerrero win the day.

The story began late last year when the Flamengo striker tested positive for cocaine, receiving a year-long ban shortly before Peru’s play-off victory over New Zealand.

Guerrero, a national hero, contested the suspension, claiming he had drunk nothing more than tea that had been contaminated by coca leaves, an infusion popular in the South American country.

That fight led a prominent US scientist to take samples from the perfectly-preserved bodies of the Inca, recently discovered 6,000 feet up in the Peruvian mountains, to prove it was possible for the offending chemical to be present without taking cocaine, a substance only invented 400 years after the children died.

The ban was overturned – and then reinstated upon the wishes of the World Anti-doping Authority. A tense legal stand-off followed – with FIFA eventually temporarily suspending the ban to allow Guerrero to take his spot, after the three skippers penned an open letter demanding his inclusion.

Ahead of today’s opener against Denmark, boss Ricardo Gareca (left) said: “We would like to thank everyone for their support – the captains, in particular.

“We appreciated the support from them for Paolo and for our whole team.”