Mykhailo Mudryk has been cleared to play football again with immediate effect, after the Football Association and the World Anti-Doping Agency resolved the doping case that has kept the Chelsea winger out of the game for more than a year and a half.
The Ukrainian, 25, was provisionally suspended in December 2024 after a routine test taken the previous October returned a positive result for meldonium, a heart medication on WADA's banned list. He had not played competitively since November 2024 and initially faced a four-year ban.
Speaking to ONE about the ordeal, Mudryk did not hide how hard the layoff had been. "This was the most difficult period in my career," he said. "I learned a lot about myself and I'm ready to return stronger."
The breakthrough came after WADA updated its own testing and reporting procedures in the two years since Mudryk's sample was taken. In a statement explaining the resolution, the FA said that "if Mr Mudryk's sample was collected today, the concentration of meldonium in the sample would not have been reported and no anti-doping rule violations would have resulted."
Rather than continuing to fight the case through the Court of Arbitration for Sport, where he had lodged an appeal, Mudryk accepted that he had committed the anti-doping rule violations as charged and agreed to a period of ineligibility equal to the time he had already served — effectively closing the file immediately.
Chelsea welcomed the outcome, pointing to "advances in applicable scientific reporting standards" that it said vindicated its player, and said the club would support his "reintegration into the squad."
Mudryk is expected to link up with Chelsea's squad on their pre-season tour of Hong Kong, working under new manager Xabi Alonso, who began his tenure at Stamford Bridge on 1 July 2026. Reports in England suggest the club could still send him out on loan first to rebuild match sharpness before fully integrating him into Alonso's plans for the season.
Mudryk arrived at Chelsea from Shakhtar Donetsk in January 2023 in a deal worth up to £89 million, one of the most eye-catching signings of the Todd Boehly ownership era. His time in England has since been defined as much by inconsistency and, latterly, this suspension as by the searing pace that made him one of the most sought-after wingers in Europe.
For now, the ruling gives him a clean slate: eligible to train and play immediately, with his first real test being whether he can rediscover the form that persuaded Chelsea to make him one of their biggest investments in years.
