Mykhailo Mudryk, bought by Chelsea from Shakhtar Donetsk by a record breaking €70 million (£62 million) plus €30 million sum for an Ukranian player, has so far been a disappointment for the English team. And now he is facing a suspension of up to four years -likely to be reduced to 18 months if he appeals- after testing positive of a banned substance.
In a regular urine test, he tested positive of Meldonium, a substance typically found on heart medicaments that was declared banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2016. In a statement, he said "he had never knowingly used any banned substances or broken any rules", but so far he is provisionally suspended until a secondary results confirm his contamination.
What is meldonium? It is a pharmaceutical created in 1970 by an USSR institute or organic synthetics, now manufactured by a Latvian pharmaceutical, Grindeks. It is used clinically for treating heart conditions, like ischemia. It acts as a metabolic modulator, as a fatty acid oxidation inhibitor.
However, it was soon found that it could be used by athletes to increase their performance, because it boosts endurance and helps them recover faster from fatigue. And, as spotted by The Conversation, it was used to imptove soldiers' stamina in Afghanistan in tthe 80s.
Seeing many athletes tested positive of meldonium, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) listed it as banned in 2016, but dozens of athletes have still been tested positive of this substance, mainly from Eastern European countries, where the drug is sold. It isn' licensed for use anywhere else in Europe nor in the US.
Tennis player Maria Sharapova was one of the first athletes to test positive after the ban, just three months after the ban. She was suspended for two years, later reduced to 15 months. It was found that the drug remained in the organism for months after its use, which complicated some cases.