Mudryk cleared to return as Cas resolves Chelsea doping case
Can play again immediately after Cas partially upheld his appeal and the FA resolved his doping case. Chelsea say he will join the club’s pre-season tour.
Mykhailo Mudryk is available to return to football immediately after the Court of Arbitration for Sport partially upheld his appeal against a doping ban, ending a case that kept the Chelsea winger out of competitive action since November 2024. The Football Association said the anti-doping proceedings have now been resolved and Mudryk can return to competition “with immediate effect.”
The 25-year-old Ukraine international had been provisionally suspended after returning an adverse finding for meldonium, a banned substance. He was later handed a maximum four-year ban by the FA before challenging the decision at Cas.
Mudryk case resolved after appeal
The FA said Mudryk accepted breaking anti-doping rules and agreed to a suspension equal to the time already served. Cas said the test showed “a low concentration” of the prohibited cardiovascular medication. The governing body also said changes have since been made to the World Anti-Doping Agency technical document relating to meldonium.
Mudryk said he was “grateful” to be able to return to playing after “the most difficult period” of his career. He added: “As I have always maintained from the outset of this case, I have never knowingly or intentionally taken any banned substance.”
Chelsea said they are looking forward to helping Mudryk “return to full fitness, back into the squad and back onto the pitch” and confirmed he will join the club’s pre-season tour. In a separate statement, the club said, “From the outset, this has been an extremely difficult period for Misha, both professionally and personally, and we are pleased that the matter has now reached a conclusion which allows him to return to football with immediate effect.”
What the ruling changes for Chelsea
The ruling gives Chelsea a player back, and it ends one of the more closely followed disciplinary sagas to involve a Premier League club in recent years. Mudryk has not played a competitive match since November 2024, and the club had been waiting for a final outcome while the legal process ran its course.
That matters because Chelsea can now start planning his footballing return instead of waiting on a ban that had already stretched through a long spell away from the pitch. The club’s statement pointed to its support for Mudryk throughout the process while respecting the anti-doping system and the legal proceedings.
Sources close to Mudryk said he remains confident he can get back to his best form after 20 months on the sidelines. During that period, he could not access Chelsea’s training ground or work with club staff. To stay sharp, he paid for private coaching, hired goalkeepers for individual sessions and used a pitch at non-league side Uxbridge FC in London.
He also organised a training camp in Austria, with videos from those sessions showing him scoring goals and joining attacking drills. Even so, people close to him said there is no replacement for daily work with elite teammates.
Chelsea are still expected to decide how they want to reintegrate him. The options discussed by those close to the player include a return to the first team, a loan move or a permanent transfer, though no decision has been announced. The case began with an out-of-competition test on international duty with Ukraine in October 2024, and the FA charged him in June 2025 before the four-year suspension was made public in April after his appeal to Cas.
