Britain's Dan Evans has been given a one-year ban after testing positive for cocaine ©Getty Images

Britain's Dan Evans has been given a one-year ban after testing positive for cocaine, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced today.

Evans, a member of the British team which won the Davis Cup in 2015, revealed he had failed for the recreational substance in June.

The 27-year-old, who was provisionally suspended after admitting he had taken the drug, provided a positive sample at the Barcelona Open on April 24.

His ban has been backdated until the day of the positive test, meaning he will be able to return to competition on April 24 next year.

The ITF decided a one-year suspension was sufficient after ruling the player bears "no significant fault or negligence" for the anti-doping violation.

It came after Evans, the British number three, provided an explanation as to how the cocaine, which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency's prohibited list, entered his system.

The ITF agreed with Evans' claim that he unknowingly ingested the amount of the drug which caused the positive test.

The British player will not be able to return to action until April of next year ©Getty Images
The British player will not be able to return to action until April of next year ©Getty Images

The world number 108 admitted, however, that he had "ingested a small amount" of cocaine out of competition on April 20.

But he stressed that the failed test on April 24 was as a result of placing the cocaine in a washbag alongside permitted medication he was taking at the time.

"The ITF accepts that Mr Evans has met his burden of proving on the balance of probabilities how the cocaine got into his system, i.e by inadvertent contamination of his fingers and/or the medication he was handling with cocaine residue when he went into the pocket of his washbag to take out and ingest the medication in the hours before giving the sample on April 24," the ITF's decision read.

Evans will miss the rest of this year and January's Australian Open but will be free to return to action in time for the French Open and Wimbledon next summer.

The ITF has also announced retired Bulgarian Dimitar Kutrovsky has been banned for two years after a positive test for D-methamphetamine.

Kutrovsky, who called time on his career last year, failed a drugs test at the Tiburon Challenger in the United States in 2015.

He was provisionally suspended the following November and his ban has been backdated to November 14.

The 30-year-old's ban is therefore due to come to an end next month.