American Wicks to leave Swedish club after positive cocaine test

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - American goalkeeper Joshua Wicks is to be released by Swedish top-flight club Sirius after he tested positive for cocaine following his side's 3-1 loss to Hammarby this month in the opening game of the season.

The 34-year-old Wicks has represented several clubs in North America's Major League Soccer as well as teams in Finland and Sweden during his 15-year career.

"He is devastated - football is his work and now he cannot practise it," Ove Sjoeblom, chairman of the Allsvenskan club from Sweden's fourth-largest city of Uppsala, told a news conference on Thursday.

"He's not being fired. It is rather a termination of a contract according to its terms," Sjoeblom added.

(Reporting by Philip O'Connor, editing by Ed Osmond)