Inside the spiralling career of Mudryk, from transfer tussle to doping scandal

MYKHAILO MUDRYK’S Chelsea career went from bad to worse with news of his failed drugs test.

The Ukrainian winger, 23, tested positive for a banned substance in October and is set for a lengthy ban.

Mudryk denied knowingly taking the drug - alleged to be performance-enhancing meldonium, which was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency banned list in 2016.

And he could now face a suspension of up to four years in a shock and devastating blow. 

It is a stark fall for the highly-rated rising star at the centre of an almighty transfer tussle between London’s two biggest clubs.

Arsenal looked set to complete a £97million deal in January 2023 - and the player himself seemingly had his heart set on the Emirates - only for Chelsea to hijack the transfer at the final hour.

The Blues paid an initial £62m to Shakhtar Donetsk for lightning-quick Mudryk, although add-ons could take it up to a whopping £88m, leaving Ian Wright gutted.

And with his salary at Stamford Bridge a reported £100,000 per week, the eight-and-a-half-year contract he put pen to paper on was worth a staggering £44m in wages. 

Despite the big money involved, though, Mudryk has failed to live up to the hype.

The keen darts and table tennis ace showed flashes of brilliance when he came on against Liverpool for his debut but had failed to score a single goal for Chelsea by the end of the 2022-23 season.

His woeful early stats even prompted the unfortunate nickname “007” - in reference to zero goals and zero assists in his first seven games.

And his settling-in time was no doubt hindered by criticism within weeks of his arrival in the Premier League when it emerged he had used the racist N-word in a TikTok video viewed more than 213,000 times.

Mudryk was reciting lyrics from rapper Lil Baby’s 2017 song Freestyle in the clip with a pal but was slammed by fans and anti-racism group Kick It Out.

The footballer issued a grovelling apology and removed the post from his social media profile.

Mudryk eventually found the net against Fulham in October 2023 but just a couple of weeks later, then-boss Mauricio Pochettino dug his underperforming winger out in the media.

Blunt Poch said: “He needs to improve. He is still not at his best.”

And it appears Chelsea fans have not seen - and indeed may never see - the best of Mykhailo Mudryk.

He finished last season with seven goals and two assists in 41 appearances across all competitions and has added three in 15 so far this term - with each of those strikes coming in the Conference League - to take his overall Chelsea tally to ten in 73.

New manager Enzo Maresca is clearly not keen, handing him just one Premier League start.

And now it does not seem highly coincidental that Mudryk missed the last four Chelsea games through “illness” before the news of his drugs test failure. 

On the international stage, Mudryk has been a main man for Ukraine in recent years and scored the goal to send his war-torn nation to Euro 2024.

But his club career may have looked very different indeed.

In the summer transfer window just six months after arriving in England, Chelsea reportedly rejected offers for the wide man before Bayern Munich failed in a shock last-ditch bid to land Mudryk in January.

Now the West Londoners could face a legal minefield working out what to do with their flop.

In theory, Mudryk could be banned until 2029 if and when his suspension is confirmed.

By the time he returns, he would still only be just turning 28 and have three years left on his bumper contract. 

But what the career of Mykhailo Mudryk looks like when that time comes is completely unclear.