Viktor Grachev: "Mudrik has been set up very well. Such things don’t just happen."

Former forward of Donetsk "Shakhtar" Viktor Grachev shared his thoughts on the doping scandal involving Ukrainian midfielder of London "Chelsea" Mykhailo Mudrik.

"My intuition says that Mudrik has been set up very well. Someone needed this, in my subjective view. Such things don’t just happen. The other question is what the second sample will show. But I don’t think Mudrik did this consciously. Why would he do that? Doesn’t he understand the consequences? If he does, then it’s a setup that someone organized.

There can be all sorts of situations: maybe he didn’t thank someone somewhere, maybe he crossed someone’s path somewhere. Life is a complicated thing, and situations can be different. But I don’t understand why Mudrik would need this substance if he was constantly getting playing time and even scoring goals. I see no sense in it. The guy has been set up, anything can happen. But I don’t think he could have consciously taken a banned substance. Where it came from in his body will be shown by the investigation. I think Mudrik has all the opportunities to sort this out and prove his innocence.

Four years of disqualification is a lot. During this time, you can only swim across the English Channel. Then he’ll have to end his career and go into amateur football. He is almost 24 years old, and in four more he’ll be 28. Rarely do footballers manage to revive their careers after a long break. A six-month or a year break—and that’s it, the end of the career,” said Grachev.