Mudryk returns to Chelsea after 20-month doping ban; Alonso urges patience
Ukrainian winger Mykhailo Mudryk is set to rejoin Chelsea's squad following a resolved meldonium case, but manager Xabi Alonso cautions that reintegrating a player absent since November 2024 will be a slow process with significant implications for an already crowded attacking roster.
Mykhailo Mudryk will rejoin Chelsea's first-team squad after the Football Association closed its anti-doping proceedings against the 25-year-old winger. Mudryk accepted that he breached anti-doping rules following an adverse finding for the banned substance meldonium, and agreed to a suspension equal to the one year and eight months he had already served.
He has not played competitive or friendly football since November 2024. His first step back comes in Hong Kong, Chelsea's next pre-season destination, where Alonso confirmed the winger will link up with the group.
Speaking after a 2-1 friendly defeat by 10-man Tottenham in Sydney, Alonso said he was "very happy" to welcome Mudryk back but stressed it remained "too early" to gauge the player's fitness or readiness for match involvement. He noted that Mudryk had been unable to train at Chelsea's facilities or work with club staff throughout the suspension, instead hiring a private coach and goalkeepers and conducting sessions at non-league side Uxbridge.
The manager acknowledged the human cost of the ban, saying the club could "probably not able to understand what he has been through during this time." He added: "He trained on his own every day, and I think it had to be really, really hard because he wanted to play football, he wanted to be part of a team, and he was not allowed to do that for such a long time."
A surprise addition to a packed wing roster
Alonso was candid that Mudryk's return caught Chelsea off guard. The club had assembled a deep set of wide options during his absence, including Pedro Neto, Estevao Willian, Jamie Gittens, Geovany Quenda, and Cole Palmer, alongside new £117m signing Morgan Rogers, who can also operate on the flanks.
"Yeah, to be honest, we were not expecting to have this great news at this moment," Alonso said. The remark underscores the squad-planning challenge Chelsea now face: integrating a player who has been effectively frozen out of structured football into a group already saturated in his position.
After Tottenham's win at Accor Stadium, Spurs head coach Roberto de Zerbi, who managed Mudryk at Shakhtar Donetsk before leaving Ukraine following Russia's 2022 invasion, offered a personal endorsement. "He is another who is my son," De Zerbi said. "I am very happy. He deserves to play."
Alonso, too, recalled Mudryk's impact at Shakhtar, describing him as a "special player" capable of creating chances in one-on-one situations. But he tempered expectations: "He will need time, for sure."
For Chelsea, the coming weeks in Hong Kong and beyond will determine whether a player sidelined for 20 months can recapture form in a squad that moved on without him.
