Why has Mudryk’s doping ban ended early?

Mykhailo Mudryk has been cleared to return to play less than two years into his four-year doping ban, despite the player admitting to committing the violation.

The FA have confirmed that Chelsea winger and former Arsenal transfer target Mykhailo Mudryk has been cleared to return to competition with immediate effect, allowing him to play for his club in the 2026/27 campaign.

Mudryk was a year and a half into a four-year doping suspension that provisionally began in December 2024 and came into full effect in May 2025. The 25-year-old’s last appearance for Chelsea was in November 2024.

So why have the FA agreed to end the suspension early, and does this mean the player’s camp have successfully overturned his ban?

To the contrary, the FA have confirmed that Mudryk has accepted that he committed the anti-doping regulations violation with which he was charged, and that he’s agreed to the period of ineligibility already served.

The key element that has allowed Mudryk to return to play is that changes to the rules mean that if the player’s offending sample was collected today, the concentration of meldonium would not have been reported and no violation would have resulted.

The changes aren’t retroactive, so that fact alone didn’t get Mudryk out of his ban. But the FA took it into account, in addition to considering other unspecified circumstances, and agreed with the World Anti-Doping Agency that the ban he’d already served was sufficient.

To put it simply, the FA maintains that Mudryk committed a violation, and that he’s now accepted this. But they’ve agreed to reduce his ban and allow him to return to play at this point, as a result of other circumstances.

Mudryk made 73 appearances for Chelsea prior to his ban, scoring 10 goals. He still has another five years on his contract, having signed a stupidly long deal back in 2023.

Arsenal are probably glad they signed Leandro Trossard that month instead, who became a Premier League winner before recouping most of the club’s investment in him with a move to Besiktas.

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