Chelsea winger Mykhailo Mudryk is free to return to competitive football with immediate effect after his four-year doping ban was resolved with the Football Association.
The 25-year-old Ukraine international has not played a competitive match since November 2024, when he was provisionally suspended after an adverse finding for meldonium, a prohibited substance that can boost respiratory capacity and stamina, in an out-of-competition test taken while on international duty with Ukraine in October 2024. After the FA handed down the maximum ban, Mudryk appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The FA said the anti-doping proceedings have now been resolved, with Mudryk accepting the violations charged and agreeing to a period of ineligibility equal to the time already served, leaving him free to return "with immediate effect". The settlement, reached with the agreement of WADA, ran alongside the resolution of his CAS appeal. The FA also noted that changes to WADA's technical document on meldonium — while not retroactive — mean that had his sample been analysed today, the concentration would not have been reported and no anti-doping rule violation would have resulted.
