Chelsea will wait until January before deciding whether Mykhailo Mudryk’s positive drugs test will force them into the transfer market.
It emerged on Tuesday that Mudryk had an “adverse finding in a routine urine test”.
Mudryk denies knowingly using any banned substance and has vowed to prove his innocence.
But if the B sample confirms the adverse finding then he could be hit with a lengthy ban.
Mudryk has struggled since his £89million move from Shakhtar Donetsk almost two years ago and Chelsea are well stocked in wide areas, with Pedro Neto, Noni Madueke and Jadon Sancho all ahead in the pecking order.
Academy graduate Tyrique George has also been integrated into Enzo Maresca’s first-team squad this season.
But Mudryk has still made 15 appearances across all competitions, registering three goals and three assists in four group stage games during the Conference League.
Chelsea are likely to need all of their enviable squad depth into the second half of the season, which could run well into July should they go far at the inaugural edition of the Club World Cup in the US.
“We have now three or four games before January,” Maresca said. “We have Everton, Fulham and Ipswich. So, we have three [league] games before January.
“After these three games, we are going to sit and decide if we need to do something.
“For sure, Tyrique is going to get minutes. We’re going to try to help him to improve day by day because now he is working with us every day, him and Josh [Acheampong]. We’re going to allow them to get minutes with us in the Premier League.”