Enzo Maresca has just spoken to the media ahead of Chelsea's UEFA Conference League clash with Shamrock Rovers on Thursday night.
While the match is just over 24 hours away, the press conference was dominated by the situation of [Mykhailo Mudryk](https://www.football.london/all-about/mykhailo-mudryk). It was confirmed on Tuesday that the Chelsea winger had failed a drug test and has been provisionally suspended by the Football Association.
So it comes as no surprise that [Maresca](https://www.football.london/all-about/enzo-maresca) was quizzed on Mudryk and the latest with the winger. Here is every word he had to say in an intriguing press conference...
**What have you said to Mykhailo Mudryk, and how is he considering what has happened this week?**
"I think the situation is now a bit more clear in terms of we have a statement from the club and the club already said what we need to say. So there is not anything to add except that the club, the coaching staff and all the people that are inside the training ground we support and we trust Misha."
**What support is the club offering him at this moment in time?**
"General support in terms of first of all we trust Misha and second when these kind of things happen you need to support your player in all the aspects."
**When you say support the player does that involve regular conversations with the likes of yourself and him or is it more of a club thing?**
"No, it's general. Misha is a Chelsea player but for sure he is one of the players that is involved in the squad. So it's also my duty to be in contact with him and me, the club, the players, the teammates. We are all there.
**Have you been given any sort of indication about a timeline with this, how long this process could go on for?**
"No, not yet."
**As a coach how do you deal with a situation like this? when it comes to the other players, have you felt the need to address them on this subject?**
"No, I don't think so. It's not the first time that this happened, it's already happened in the past. It's not happened with us but it's going to happen again for this different player but I think they know exactly what they have to do and this is the reason why we trust and support Misha.
**Do you think it's a wake up call, a reminder maybe to the players, sharpens their focus about this kind of issue, especially maybe going away on international duty?**
"I don't think so."
**Did you speak to Misha and did you offer your support and how did that conversation go?**
"Yeah, absolutely. We are all sad and we are there to support Misha. I spoke with him days ago."
**Now you can't see him until the process is over. so how is the situation, how is the club looking after him?**
"At the moment he can't train. We are waiting but as I said, the club is there to support the player with all the things that we need to support him in all the aspects."
**Did the test happen when he was, did it come after international duty or did it happen when he was at Chelsea?**
"To be honest I don't know."
**You said earlier 'we trust Misha'. Can you expand on that a bit, what do you mean by that please? If you say trust what do you mean?**
"What did you mean by that? That we trust Misha and we support Misha. And trust means that we believe Misha, we trust Misha and we support him."
**He seems genuinely taken aback by this which in a way kind of makes it feel like he wants to fight it. It sounds like you're very much behind him and you're believing what he's said to you.**
"Exactly, it's like this. What Misha said and what we said is that we trust Misha, we support Misha and then we see.
**Has this happened to you before in your career where you've had to help a player through something like this?**
"No, I don't think so."
**How well equipped do you feel as a young coach yourself to help a player, particularly a young player like Misha, through something like this?**
"Because this is really a test more of your leadership and your mentoring skills. Then as a football coach, how ready did you feel to help a player in a vulnerable position? No, yeah, first of all these kind of things happen not only to young players, it happens also to players with experience.
"It's not just about Misha or about young players in general. Then as I said, it's my duty since we start that I try to have a relation with players quite close because I like it that way.
"So even with Misha it's exactly the same and I'm there to try to help Misha in anything he needs. Because in this moment it's normal that he's going to need help from the club, from me, from the teammates and we are all there to try to support him."
**Just to clarify, your belief is that Misha is innocent of what happened?**
"We all believe that, then we see."
**Obviously though if he is found guilty of taking something, the possibility of a ban is obviously very long. Are you confident that he can potentially come back from this and it won't ultimately be the end of his career?**
"No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think he's going to come back. Now the only thing is that we don't know when. It's the only doubt we have in this moment but for sure he's going to come back.
**It sometimes gets forgotten that a young player who's come from a war zone, that must be very difficult for him to come to a new country and have to deal with being away from his family and friends in such a difficult moment, away from football. Do you have concerns, do you have to look at him from a mental perspective that this must be a very lonely, difficult time for him?**
"It's not about Misha, it's about any player in the world that these kind of things happen. They need support. No matter if he's 20 or 30, no matter if he's English or Italian or Ukrainian, no matter nothing, when these kind of things happen, I need support, you need support, they need support, we all need support because something happened.
"It's not about Misha, it's not about the age, it's not about the country. It's about that. When these kind of things happen, we all need support.
**How did the squad take the news when you told them yesterday that Mudryk would not be part of the team for a foreseeable future?**
"Yeah, we had all the same feeling in terms of the teammates. They were all surprised because Misha at the beginning was ill, he wasn't good, then this happened. They were all surprised and at the same time sad because we don't like these kind of things.
**And is it about the senior players in the squad, maybe your captain, some of those senior leadership figures to maybe reach out and help support him alongside you as well?**
"Yeah, not only the senior players. I think in this kind of moment it's important that all the teammates are there to support Misha."
**Are Chelsea favourites to win the Conference League?**
"I said already that I like to go step by step. For us the main target in Conference was the group stage, now the group stage is there. We want to see the next game and then the target when we play the next game is to go to the next one and then we see where we arrive.
**Misha as a player, how do you see his talent? Has he improved?**
"For sure. With us he was improving a lot, especially in the last game. He started to understand which position he has to start at the beginning because of his skills he was moving a lot, he was running a lot. With us, I think in the last two or three games that he played he was improving a lot.
"We were very happy with him. Then in terms of where he can be in one year, two years, three years, I don't know.
**Do you see talent on the training ground with him that maybe we don't see on the pitch and in matches sometimes?**
"No, the talent we see in the training pitch is exactly the same talent that sometimes you can see during the game with Misha. It's exactly the same feeling. In the training session, exactly the same that happened during the game.
**How have you handled the little bumps in the road at Chelsea, for example, the Mudryk situation and Enzo Fernandez?**
"Just to try to convince the players that the only side that we can decide is the pitch side because then everything happens around the pitch. Sometimes we cannot control that as you said, Enzo one or the other kind of things.
"But especially to convince them that if we need to solve things outside of the pitch, it's my job to do it, not their job. They have to be focused on the game. Day by day they have to work hard and try to win games as much as we can. Then the rest is about the club, it's about me, how to try to solve this kind of problem that you just said now."
**How pleased are you that Josh Acheampong has signed a new contract with the club?**
"Very, very happy. Josh has been quite clear, he was with us in pre-season. I didn't know him personally, but after two or three days that he was there with us, he really impressed me.
"Since the pre-season I was trying to understand a little bit the situation with him in terms of contract and these kind of things. Now finally the club found an agreement with him and we are all happy because we are all convinced and sure that Josh can be a great player for this club.
**Do you feel as if he's a player who might need to go out on loan in the future to get more experience or do you think he's ready to play now?**
"My personal opinion is that he has to stay close to us. So as much as we can keep him here, it's much better."
**Obviously we don't know how long Mudryk will be out but with the left wing could that actually represent a big opportunity for Tyrique George or is it something you might have to think closer to January?**
"We have now three or four games before January. We have Everton, Fulham and Ipswich. Three games before January. So we have still three games and then after these three games we are going to sit and we are going to decide if we need to do something.
"For sure, Tyrique is going to get minutes and we are going to try to help him to improve day by day because now he's working with us every day, him and Josh, and to allow them to get minutes with us in Premier League."
**Omari Kellyman, what's the latest on his injury?**
"Yeah, now the main plan for him was to recover after the injury and now step by step, slowly slowly to get minutes and then in January we'll see which decision is better for him."
**Can I just ask you a broader question on doping and how clean do you think football is today compared to say when you walked into Juventus as a player right off the back of the doping scandal?**
"I was waiting for this question. I think football was clean in that time and it's clean in this time. So I don't think there is a big difference between my time at Juventus and now. I think in that time it was clean, in this time it's clean. But as I said before, these kind of things happened in the past, they happen now and they are going to happen in the future."
**Shamrock Rovers, what do you think are their strengths and how will you be approaching the game tomorrow?**
"We're going to try to approach always in the same way, try to do our best and win the game. I think today in football it's difficult to find teams that have no strength.
All the teams have something good and some things that you can try to work on that and win the game. But I've watched four or five games and I think they are a good team. They try to defend as a block all together and they have some good players in general. I'm quite convinced that all the games are difficult.
"It depends on us and the way we take that game. It can become more easy or more difficult but for sure it will be another game that we're going to try to win the game."
**So far Shamrock are also unbeaten, which of the games have you been more impressed with?**
"I saw also the game against Sparta Prague, that game also. Rapid Vienna as you said. But different games that they were trying to play face to face with the other team."
**Are there any players in particular that caught your eye?**
"No, I think it's as I said before, it's a general team. The way they defend as a block, the way they try to defend to help each other. So it's more general.
**And for the team that you're likely to take the start tomorrow, will you be giving some of the younger players an opportunity?**
"Could be, could be. We try to change players since we start and tomorrow probably it's one more option for that.
**Are you surprised at how well the season has gone for you? Surprised?**
"I said many times that we are ahead of my expectations in terms of the way we play and also for the results."