Chelsea's Pre-Season Tour in Hong Kong: New Arrivals and Comebacks

Chelsea’s pre-season tour has rolled into Hong Kong – and with it comes a flurry of new faces, returning stories and one striking comeback.

Mudryk cleared and back in blue

Mykhailo Mudryk will step off a long-haul flight into a very different world from the one he left 20 months ago.

The 25-year-old winger is now free to play competitive football again after serving almost two years on the sidelines following a positive test for meldonium, a substance on the banned list at the time. Scientific guidance has since shifted; under today’s criteria, that original test would not have led to a doping violation. The cloud has lifted. The door is open.

Mudryk is due to arrive in Hong Kong on Monday, barely 48 hours before Chelsea face Juventus in a glamour friendly at the Kai Tak Stadium on Wednesday night. After so long “out in the cold”, even a pre-season run-out against Italian opposition suddenly feels like a significant stage.

Welbeck’s quiet arrival, big experience

He will not be the only new arrival greeting the squad in Asia.

Danny Welbeck is also expected to link up with his new teammates in Hong Kong after Chelsea agreed a deal with Brighton for the 35-year-old forward. The fee is officially undisclosed, but is believed to be minimal, a low-cost move for a high-mileage Premier League striker.

Welbeck completed his medical in London last week and has signed a two-year contract at Stamford Bridge. For a squad being reshaped under Xabi Alonso, he offers something simple but valuable: know-how, movement, a reference point up front. He now gets his first chance to slot into the patterns on the training pitches of Hong Kong.

Henderson signed, but stuck on the sidelines

Jordan Henderson will also become a Chelsea player, with only the formal announcement still to come, but the veteran midfielder will not be boarding a plane to join this leg of the tour.

The 36-year-old is recovering from a serious left forearm and wrist fracture, suffered in brutal fashion when he tumbled over an advertising hoarding after England’s win over Mexico at the World Cup. His integration will have to wait. For now, his role is that of a marquee signing watching from afar while his new teammates put in the hard yards.

Quenda and Penders join the push

The squad in Hong Kong will be further bolstered later in the week by the arrivals of Geovany Quenda and Mike Penders, both beginning their pre-season campaigns with Chelsea.

Quenda, signed from Sporting CP this summer, had been pencilled in for the earlier leg of the tour in Sydney. A minor knock in a behind-closed-doors friendly forced a change of plans and a spell of rehabilitation at Cobham instead. That work is done. The 21-year-old is fit again, available, and eager to make a first impression on Alonso in front of a new fanbase.

Penders, meanwhile, has been on an extended break after his World Cup duties with Belgium. His delayed return now feeds into a useful narrative for Chelsea: a staggered build-up, fresh legs dropping into a group that is already up to speed, competition for places sharpening by the day.

Set-piece specialist on the way

Off the pitch, Chelsea are also moving to strengthen the backroom staff. The club have reached an agreement with Aston Villa for set-piece coach Austin MacPhee, with the highly regarded specialist expected to join the touring party in Hong Kong, according to sources.

His potential arrival comes at a timely moment. The Blues will hold an open training session for supporters on Tuesday evening, a chance for local fans to see Alonso’s work up close and for the coaching staff to start stamping their identity on the squad. Whether MacPhee is on the turf by then remains to be seen, but the intention is clear: details matter, and Chelsea want every edge.

By Wednesday night, when Juventus walk out at Kai Tak, Chelsea’s tour will look very different from the group that started it. A winger back from the wilderness, a seasoned striker in new colours, fresh legs from Portugal and Belgium, and a specialist coach on the horizon.

Pre-season in Hong Kong is no longer just a fitness exercise. It is the first real glimpse of what Alonso’s Chelsea might become.