Mykhailo Mudryk Cleared to Return to Football After Doping Ban

Mykhailo Mudryk has been cleared to return to football immediately after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) cut short his four-year doping ban.

The Chelsea winger, 25, has been sidelined since November 2024, frozen out of competitive action after an “adverse finding” for the banned substance meldonium led to a provisional suspension from the Football Association the following month.

The FA later imposed the maximum four-year sanction, a decision that threatened to carve a huge hole out of the prime years of his career. Mudryk challenged that ruling at CAS and has now received partial vindication.

CAS confirmed that Mudryk accepted he had broken anti-doping regulations, but the court ruled that the suspension already served is sufficient, allowing him to return to competition “with immediate effect”.

From here, the story moves off the legal pages and back onto the pitch, where Mudryk must now prove that a career stalled by scandal can still catch fire.