Mykhailo Mudryk Set for Tottenham Debut After Suspension

Roberto De Zerbi did not bother dressing it up. Mykhailo Mudryk is back, and Tottenham are ready to use him.

The Spurs head coach confirmed the Ukrainian winger is available to make his debut for the club on Saturday, drawing a line under one of the most turbulent chapters of the 25-year-old’s career.

“I don’t know how much time he needs to be available to start the game,” De Zerbi said in his pre-match press conference. “One part of the game, I think he’s ready right now to play 20, 15, 30 minutes.”

For a Tottenham side still trying to spark fully into life under their new manager, it is a significant lift. Mudryk has not played a competitive match since November 2024. Nearly two years on the outside, watching, training alone, waiting for a verdict.

From suspension to second chance

His career stalled brutally when a low concentration of meldonium was found in his system in late 2024. The substance, used to treat heart disease, sits firmly on the banned list because of its impact on recovery and endurance. The consequence was a provisional suspension and a long, uncertain exile from the game.

The case dragged on. While his name sat in limbo, his prime years ticked by.

The breakthrough finally arrived in July. WADA and the English FA reached an agreement that the levels detected back in 2024 would not count as a positive test under current regulations. Just like that, the door swung open. Mudryk was cleared to return immediately.

But nothing about his preparation has been normal. During his ban, he was forced to work away from team environments, relying on individual sessions, fitness work and technical drills stripped of tactical context. No patterns of play. No pressing triggers. No rhythm of a dressing room.

That is the player De Zerbi inherits at Spurs: physically honed, mentally scarred, tactically undercooked.

Reunited with his “football father”

If anyone knows how to reach Mudryk, it is De Zerbi. The Italian coached him at Shakhtar Donetsk, where the winger’s explosive form first lit up Europe and fuelled talk of a future Ballon d’Or contender.

The bond between them was forged in extreme circumstances. They worked together at the start of the conflict in Ukraine, a period De Zerbi still references when he speaks about the player. Those months left a mark on both men.

“The last problem, the suspension, but by the end the potential was clear, is clear, and now his challenge is to respect all his qualities, because he’s a great player,” De Zerbi reflected.

Mudryk’s path since then has been anything but straightforward. A blockbuster move to Chelsea came with a price tag that weighed heavily. Expectations soared, performances fluctuated, and the noise around him grew louder than the football.

He has trained recently with Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea squad on their pre-season tour, trying to sharpen his edge. Yet the absence of competitive football still hangs over him. That, more than anything, is what Tottenham must now manage.

“A normal player” at Spurs

For De Zerbi, the key is stripping away the drama. No special treatment. No permanent asterisk next to his name.

“Now I think he’s a normal player like (Micky) Van de Ven, like another player. If he deserves it, he will play or not,” the Spurs head coach insisted.

It is a deliberate message. Inside the Tottenham dressing room, Mudryk is not the £100m curiosity from Stamford Bridge, not the banned winger trying to rebuild his reputation, but another member of the squad fighting for minutes.

De Zerbi wants him to feel the season, not be crushed by it.

“He has to feel this season, to live this season in the right way, not too much pressure,” the Italian said. “It is the right moment for him to show all people things because if Chelsea paid 100m four years ago – they bought a lot of big, big players, no? – they thought very well about the qualities of Mudryk.”

There is a challenge wrapped inside that compliment. The talent that once convinced Chelsea to spend so heavily has not vanished. It has been paused, interrupted, tested. Now it has to resurface in a different shirt, under a familiar coach, in a team desperate for cutting edge.

On Saturday, it might be 15 minutes. It might be 30. It will not be the finished version of Mykhailo Mudryk.

But for Tottenham, and for a winger who has waited almost two years to feel the real thing again, it is the first meaningful step towards finding out what he still is – and what he can become.