The Athletic's Liam Twomey says Chelsea player Mykhailo Mudryk's appeal to the CAS could be resolved very soon. However, he does not specify whether the outcome will be favorable or unfavorable.
Mykhailo Mudryk continues fighting to prove that he is not guilty after having received an official 4-year sentence from the FA, this after having been found to have tested positive for doping with meldonium. Recently, Liam Twomey stated on the Straight Outta Cobham podcast that the appeal process is in its final stage and that we will receive updates on the case very soon.
He said: "Well, the last conversation I had on this, I was told that there could be developments in the next two or three weeks. Now, unfortunately, it wasn't any more specific than that, but we are at the CAS stage of the process, which is the final stage. There is no appeal to the court, beyond the Court of Arbitration for Sport; their decision is final.
So whether there is a set hearing or not, Mudryk will know exactly where he stands: whether he's cleared, whether he's got an adjusted ban, or whether he still has to serve the remainder of the four-year ban the FA hit him with and didn't tell anyone.
And then everyone can proceed with a bit more knowledge and closure, but right now, I think he's still, he's still in that same kind of purgatorial state that he was when I watched him train a couple of months ago."
Let us hope that the updates he mentions are truly positive for both the player and the club. However, whenever the topic of Mudryk is discussed, the same question arises. If he were allowed to play again tomorrow, would he have a place in the team? Or to what extent will these 19 months of professional inactivity have affected him?
To a certain extent, it is true that the team currently does not have a reliable left winger, because Alejandro Garnacho appears to be leaving the club during the summer transfer market after not delivering the results that were expected of him, as well as other off-field factors that undermined his relationship with the fans and the Chelsea board.
On the other hand, there is Jamie Gittens, who suffered a hamstring injury in January, which caused him to miss the rest of the season, because he suffered a setback in April when his return to the pitch was already expected. He has been discharged and is doing the preseason under the new coach, Xabi Alonso.
If Mudryk were allowed to play professional football tomorrow, then it would indeed be very interesting to see what the club would decide to do with him, but probably for that there are still months to go, and, with the season already underway and with a starting lineup established by the coach, everything will become more and more difficult for him.
