Enzo Maresca breaks his silence over Mykhailo Mudryk’s positive drugs test as he offers support to suspended Chelsea footballer
Enzo Maresca insists he trusts Mykhailo Mudryk is telling the truth that he is innocent of doping, but Chelsea’s head coach does not know how long he will be without the 23-year-old Ukrainian.
Maresca admits that unknown timescale could force the Premier League’s surprise title challengers to look for a replacement in the January transfer window with 18-year-old Tyrique George from the academy set to fill in for Mudryk in the meantime.
Mudryk is facing up to a four-year ban if found guilty, though Maresca does not believe this will be the end of his Blues career. The 44-year-old Italian has spoken personally with his player since news broke of the positive A sample he provided which was understood to contain meldonium.
‘We support and we trust Misha,’ said Maresca. ‘Trust means that we believe Misha. We support Misha and then we see. We are all sad. Me, the club, the players, we are all there.’
Chelsea face Shamrock Rovers in the Conference League at Stamford Bridge on Thursday night looking to make it six wins from six in the European competition, though Maresca’s press conference was inevitably dominated by the big news. Of the 32 questions put to him, 23 were on Mudryk.
One of those included us asking Chelsea’s head coach if he trusts the protestations of innocence coming from his player, to which Maresca replied: ‘We all believe that, then we see. I think he is going to come back. The only thing is that we don’t know when.
Mykhailo Mudryk has received a provisional suspension after returning a positive drugs test
Enzo Maresca gave his full backing to the player in his first press conference since news broke
The Ukrainian is waiting for the findings of his ‘B’ sample after ‘A’ sample returned positive
‘I’m there to try to help Misha in anything he needs. It’s normal that he’s going to need help from the club, from me, from his team-mates. We are all there to try to support him. They (Mudryk’s team-mates) were all surprised because Misha at the beginning was ill, he wasn’t good, then this happened. They were all surprised and at the same time sad.
‘No matter if he is 20 or 30, no matter if he is English or Italian or Ukrainian, no matter nothing. When these things happen, I need support, you need support, they need support, we all need support because something happened. It’s not about Misha, it’s not about the age, it’s not about the country. It’s about that.’
Maresca was also asked if George can fill in for Mudryk as an option on the left wing or if Chelsea will need to consider bringing in a new signing in January as cover. He said: ‘We have three (Premier League) games before January – Everton, Fulham and Ipswich. After these three games, we are going to sit and we are going to decide if we need to do something.
‘For sure, Tyrique is going to get minutes. We are going to try to help him to improve day by day because now he’s working with us every day, him and Josh (Acheampong), to allow them to get minutes with us in Premier League.’
George has appeared seven times for Chelsea’s first team, twice as a starter.
Maresca added he was unaware of details such as whether Mudryk’s positive test happened after an international break with Ukraine or while with Chelsea.
Mudryk is being represented by Morgan Sports Law. They have reiterated their client has not been charged with any doping offence since Mail Sport began speaking with the legal firm on Friday after we received a tip from an anonymous source. Attempts at preventing the news from being made public ultimately failed when it was broken by Ukrainian media.
Meanwhile, Josh Acheampong has brought an end to his elongated contract squabble by signing a new contract until 2029 with Chelsea. He is expected to start against Shamrock tonight alongside George.
