Mykhailo Mudryk Cleared to Return to Football After CAS Ruling

Mykhailo Mudryk has been cleared to return to competitive football immediately after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) partially upheld his appeal against a four-year doping ban.

The Chelsea winger, 25, has been sidelined since November 2024. He was provisionally suspended the following month when an FA test produced an “adverse finding” for meldonium, a substance on the list of banned performance-enhancing drugs.

The FA then imposed the maximum punishment available: a four-year suspension. Mudryk challenged that ruling at CAS. The case has now swung decisively in his favour, at least in sporting terms.

CAS confirmed that Mudryk accepted he had broken anti-doping regulations. Crucially, though, the court agreed that the sanction should be limited to the period he has already spent out of the game. That time served is deemed sufficient, allowing him to re-enter competition “with immediate effect”.

It draws a hard line under one of the most troubling chapters of Mudryk’s career and hands Chelsea an unexpected option as the winger steps back into a landscape that moved on without him.