Mykhailo Mudryk has been provisionally suspended from football after being notified of a positive drugs test by the FA.
The Chelsea winger, who moved from Shakhtar Donetsk in January 2023 in a deal worth up to £89million, has missed the club’s past five matches and has not featured since a Europa Conference League game on November 28.
Mudryk is understood to be citing contamination and denies deliberately taking a banned substance. He had a test in August that was clear but a subsequent test returned a positive result for the banned substance. Mudryk is still waiting for the result of his B sample.
“I can confirm that I have been notified that a sample I provided to the FA contained a banned substance,” the 23-year-old Ukraine international said in a statement posted on Instagram.
Mudryk joined Chelsea for £89million in January 2023
JOUPIN GHAMSARI/GETTY IMAGES
“This has come as a complete shock as I have never knowingly used any banned substances or broken any rules, and am working closely with my team to investigate how this could have happened.
“I know that I have not done anything wrong and remain hopeful that I will be back on the pitch soon. I cannot say any more now due to the confidentiality of the process, but I will as soon as I can.”
Mudryk is believed to claim that he has not changed anything in his routine since the August test. However, it is thought he believes that any form of contamination must have happened while he was abroad because the substance involved is not thought to be available in the UK. Chelsea have launched their own investigation but are said to be supportive of their player, who is fully cooperating with the club.
Publicly, the head coach Enzo Maresca had indicated that Mudryk’s absence had been down to illness. But it has now emerged that he has been unavailable since being informed of an adverse analytical finding.
Under FA regulations, a player can be notified of a test result and then provisionally suspended while being given the opportunity to provide an explanation before any decision regarding a charge.
The precise details of the case remain unclear but since last Friday The Times has been in correspondence with a specialist sports law firm acting for Mudryk. It has stated repeatedly that its client has not been charged with any form of doping offence.
While Mudryk’s A sample came back positive, he is still awaiting the results of the B sample, which is taken at the same time and tested to verify the accuracy of the initial result.
Chelsea said in a statement: “Both the club and Mykhailo fully support the FA’s testing programme and all our players, including Mykhailo, are regularly tested. Mykhailo has confirmed categorically that he has never knowingly used any banned substances. Both Mykhailo and the club will now work with the relevant authorities to establish what has caused the adverse finding.”
Mudryk has 28 caps for Ukraine and represented his country at Euro 2024
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Mudryk, who signed an eight-year contract when he joined Chelsea last year, has struggled to secure regular first-team football this season, starting only one Premier League game in a side which has moved up to second place under the new head coach Maresca. Most of his appearances have come in the Europa Conference League, most recently away to Heidenheim in Germany last month, when he scored in a 2-0 victory.
Since then, he has missed top-flight matches with Aston Villa, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and Brentford as well as last week’s Conference League trip to Kazakhstan to face Astana.
When asked about injured and ill players on December 6, Maresca detailed how Reece James and Wesley Fofana were still recovering but said of Mudryk: “The other one that is still ill is Misha Mudryk.”
On December 11, Mudryk was not seen in open training before the trip to Kazakhstan, while on December 15, in an interview with the Chelsea website, Maresca said: “We had João [Félix] and Romeo [Lavia] that probably can be available for the next one.
“Carney [Chukwuemeka] after Astana was ill, Chilly [Ben Chilwell] was ill. Pedro [Neto] was suspended and then we had Reece [James] and Wes [Fofana] injured, and unfortunately during the session yesterday, Benoît [Badiashile] felt something, and Misha [Mudryk] is out too.”
