"Misha is a freak." That's Tosin Adarabioyo's verdict on Mykhailo Mudryk, and given what the Ukrainian winger just pulled off, it's hard to argue.
Mudryk came off the bench in the closing stages of Chelsea's 1-0 pre-season loss to Juventus in Hong Kong on Wednesday — his first appearance in a Chelsea shirt since November 2024. Twenty months away from the game, a doping case resolved only last week by the FA, and he stepped on the pitch after just a handful of training sessions. Nicolas Jackson gave up his place specifically to let Mudryk enter. The 43,000-plus crowd at Kai Tak Stadium didn't need much persuading to react.
How fit is he, really?
That's the question that matters most for Chelsea heading into the season — and Tosin's answer is more reassuring than any fitness bulletin could be. "There is no doubt he has been working hard throughout this whole time. I know he has been doing sessions away, I have seen him. I know the guys he has been working with."
Tosin has stayed in contact with Mudryk throughout the entire absence. When someone that close to the situation says they're "not surprised at all" by the fitness levels, that carries weight. This wasn't a player coasting through a ban. Mudryk reportedly kept working with external coaches and maintained his conditioning independently — which is why Xabi Alonso was comfortable throwing him on, even with so little training time banked.
How quickly Alonso can reintegrate him into a system that's had 20 months to develop without him is the real variable. The physical condition might be there. The match sharpness — the timing, the pressing triggers, the combinations — takes longer. Chelsea's attacking depth means there's no pressure to rush him. But if Mudryk can rediscover his best form from 2023, he significantly shifts what this team can threaten in behind. That makes his odds of featuring regularly by autumn very much worth watching.
A different Chelsea squad around him
The club Mudryk returns to looks different. Tosin himself — once the squad's elder statesman at 28, jokingly dubbed 'Uncle Tosin' by teammates — has been displaced at the top of the age ladder by Danny Welbeck (35) and Jordan Henderson (36), both arriving this summer. Tosin seemed relieved. "No, thank God," he said with a laugh.
On Welbeck: "We have all seen that he scores goals. He is a striker and he is here to help." On Henderson: "Pure experience... they are winners. They will bring that winning mentality." Whether those two veteran arrivals translate into on-pitch returns is Chelsea's pre-season gamble — but for Mudryk, coming back into a squad with that kind of experience around him is probably the right environment.
He played his first minutes in nearly two years. He kept himself in shape when most players would have drifted. And his closest friend at the club says his work rate is "phenomenal."
The rest is just football.
