Mykhailo Mudryk cleared for return as doping case resolved | OneFootball

Mykhailo Mudryk is free to return to action for Chelsea with immediate effect after his anti-doping case was resolved.

The 25-year-old has not played since November 2024, after a provisional suspension followed an adverse finding for meldonium. The FA later issued a maximum four-year ban, which he appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The appeal has now concluded, with Mudryk accepting an anti-doping breach and agreeing a sanction equal to time already served, allowing an immediate comeback.

Details were not previously disclosed due to the confidentiality of the FA’s anti-doping programme. The adverse finding stemmed from an out-of-competition test while he was with Ukraine in October 2024, and the sample showed only a low concentration of meldonium, a substance that can increase respiratory capacity and stamina.

World Anti-Doping Agency technical guidance on meldonium has since changed. While not applied retroactively, the level in Mudryk’s sample would not now have triggered an adverse finding, and with Wada’s agreement that context underpinned the resolution.

Mudryk remains under contract at Chelsea until 2031 after a £61m move from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2022, part of the club’s strategy of spreading transfer and contract costs over long deals to reduce their impact on annual accounts. Had the original four-year ban stood, he would not have been able to play until around December 2028.

Source: Hounslow Herald