He notably played for Birmingham City and West Ham United and made 58 official appearances for Australia and was in the Australian 2006 FIFA World Cup squad.

[8] Settling much better at St Andrew's, he played an important role in guiding the team up to the Premiership for the 2002–03 season, scoring one of the penalties in the play-off final shootout to help them get promoted to the Premier League.

[10] Following promotion (and despite a raft of new signings) Lazaridis remained a regular player for the Blues, scoring the winner against local rivals Aston Villa in March 2003 and a classic goal against Everton in February 2004.

Although perhaps slim comfort to Lazaridis finasteride was removed from the banned list in large measure as a result of the widespread discontent that followed his unfortunate case becoming public.

[11] While noting his previous good character and making clear there was no evidence he had taken performance-enhancing drugs, he was found to have breached the rules and was given a 12-month suspension from football, mostly backdated.