Frank Lampard's Coventry City are one of three Premier League clubs to have expressed interest in signing Chelsea winger Mykhailo Mudryk on loan, according to reports.
Mudryk has joined Chelsea's pre-season tour after his doping case with the Football Association was brought to a close. He had been provisionally suspended since November 2024 after returning an adverse finding for the banned substance meldonium.
Doping case resolved
The FA ended its anti-doping proceedings after Mudryk accepted that he had breached anti-doping rules and agreed to a suspension equal to the one year and eight months already served. He is now free to play with immediate effect.
Reacting to his imminent comeback, Mudryk said he was "grateful" to return after "the most difficult period" of his career. He added: "As I have always maintained from the outset of this case, I have never knowingly or intentionally taken any banned substance."
Chelsea said they were "pleased that the matter has now reached a conclusion which allows him to return to football with immediate effect". A club statement added: "We have always supported Misha throughout this process while fully respecting the integrity of the anti-doping system and the legal process."
Loan interest from Premier League and Europe
A loan move is seen as the likeliest route for Mudryk to gain regular minutes and get back to the form that earned him a £62m move to Stamford Bridge. The overall cost of the transfer was £89m, but performance-related add-ons have not been activated because Mudryk has scored just five Premier League goals for the Blues.
According to The Sun, two other unnamed Premier League clubs have registered interest, while three European teams are also keen to sign Mudryk on loan. Lampard hopes to strike a deal with his former club as Coventry prepare for their return to the top flight.
New Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso said he was "very happy" to welcome Mudryk back into his squad, but stressed it was "too early" to determine his performance levels. He said: "It's too early to tell how he is in terms of fitness, in terms of the game time you need to be involved again, so it's still too early to tell."
Alonso added: "We are happy for him, especially for him, because we are probably not able to understand what he has been through during this time and how he feels at the moment with the things he has had to cope with. We expect that it will take time. He trained on his own every day, and I think it had to be really, really hard because he wanted to play football, he wanted to be part of a team, and he was not allowed to do that for such a long time."
Pre-season friendlies and Coventry's return
It remains to be seen whether Mudryk features in Chelsea's upcoming pre-season friendlies against Juventus or AC Milan. Coventry, meanwhile, will mark their long-awaited Premier League return against champions Arsenal on August 21.
