Mark Bosnich will make an announcement on Thursday on whether he will mount a legal challenge to his positive test for cocaine, it was reported.

The former Socceroo goalkeeper is deciding whether to challenge the A test or accept that he took the drug and agree to undergo a rehabilitation program, British newspaper The Guardian said.

Bosnich's agent in London, Jeff Weston, was not immediately available for comment.

But the paper said that if Bosnich agreed to rehabilitation, his English club Chelsea would almost certainly terminate his STG42,000 ($A119,000) a week contract which runs until mid-2004.

However, he would be free to resume his career with another club once he was proved to be clean and would not have to serve a worldwide ban of up to two years.

A legal challenge could prove a long and costly course of action with no guarantee of clearing his name.

But Chelsea would have to continue paying the 30-year-old until it was settled or his contract expired, whichever came first.

"It's not easy to challenge drug tests," sports lawyer Nick Bitel told the paper.

"But, if he does, and he is suspended from play but not banned, he would not have been found guilty of anything and it would be unreasonable not to pay him."

Meanwhile, The Daily Mirror newspaper said it may take a month for Bosnich's B sample to be analysed.

Bosnich held crisis talks with Chelsea chairman Ken Bates and managing director Trevor Birch yesterday but had maintained a public silence since news of the drug test broke last Sunday.

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