Mudryk Set for Spurs Debut as De Zerbi Eyes Fresh Start
Mykhailo Mudryk is finally back. And Roberto De Zerbi is ready to use him.
Tottenham’s head coach confirmed the winger is available to make his club debut on Saturday, ending a long and chaotic spell on the sidelines that has stretched back to November 2024.
“I don’t know how much time he needs to be available to start the game,” De Zerbi admitted 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 Spurs side still trying to catch fire under their new manager, this is a jolt of electricity. Mudryk has been training and travelling with Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea squad on their pre-season tour, but he hasn’t played competitive football for nearly two years. That gap is the shadow hanging over his comeback.
From suspension to second chance
Mudryk’s career veered off course in late 2024. A provisional suspension landed after a low concentration of meldonium was detected in his system. The substance, a heart medication, sits firmly on the banned list because of its impact on recovery and endurance. The consequences were brutal: the Ukrainian missed almost two full seasons.
The saga finally untangled in July. WADA reached an agreement with the English FA, and the conclusion was stark: the levels found in 2024 would not count as a positive test under current regulations. Overnight, the cloud lifted. Mudryk was cleared to return immediately.
The damage, though, had already been done. During his suspension, he trained alone, away from any team environment, clinging to fitness through individual sessions. No dressing room, no tactical drills, no rhythm of weekly competition. Just a player in limbo.
De Zerbi never lost faith. He knows this winger better than most, having been the architect of Mudryk’s rise at Shakhtar Donetsk. That history shapes everything now.
“A normal player” – but with extraordinary expectations
The Italian is determined not to wrap Mudryk in bubble wrap or treat him as a special case inside the Spurs squad.
“Now I think he’s a normal player like (Micky) Van de Ven, like another player,” De Zerbi said. “If he deserves it, he will play or not.”
It’s a blunt message, but a deliberate one. Tottenham want the talent, not the drama. Mudryk arrives in north London after a bruising spell at Stamford Bridge, where a huge price tag and wild predictions – including talk of Ballon d’Or potential – never came close to being fulfilled.
At Spurs, he steps back into the orbit of the coach who first unlocked him. De Zerbi spoke with clear affection as he recalled their time together at Shakhtar during the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine, underlining the emotional bond that still exists.
“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 said.
Right time, right manager?
This reunion is being framed as a reset, not a rescue mission. De Zerbi wants Mudryk to embrace the season without suffocating under its weight.
“He has to feel this season, to live this season in the right way, not too much pressure,” the Spurs boss stressed. “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.”
The fee still lingers in the background, an unavoidable reminder of what he was once expected to become. Tottenham, though, are betting that in the right system, under the right coach, that version of Mudryk can re-emerge.
On Saturday, the wait should finally end. It might be 15 minutes. It might be 30. However long it is, we’ll start to find out whether this is just a comeback – or the real beginning of the player Mudryk was always meant to be.
