The 27-year-old, who won the Stanley Cup with National Hockey League team Colorado Avalanche last season, was placed under investigation by the International Ice Hockey Federation last year after it was reported that a sample that had been stored at the Moscow Laboratory had shown traces of testosterone.

But now, as Russia's official state news agency TASS reports, the case against Nichushkin is closed, according to the IIHF.

In a statement, the governing body said: "The International Ice Hockey Federation will not initiate a disqualification of Valery Nichushkin for an anti-doping rule violation.

"This became possible after the results of additional studies by the Swiss Doping Laboratory.

"IIHF notified Nichushkin that all charges against the player were dropped.

"The Russian Ice Hockey Federation will be glad to see Valery in the national team after its return to the international arena."

Nichushkin told the Sport-Express newspaper in July that he expected a hearing on the case to take place in the summer.

Nichushkin has been playing for Colorado since the 2019-2020 season.

Before that he played in the NHL for Dallas Stars, having started his career in the Kontinental Hockey League with CSKA Moscow and Tractor.

As part of the Russian national team he won a bronze medal at the 2017 World Cup.

He competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where the Russian team lost 3-1 to Finland in the quarter-finals.

Nichushkin was among several Russian athletes prevented from taking part at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

He was among athletes informed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) they were not eligible to compete even though they had never been sanctioned for taking banned drugs.

They all failed to pass the scrutiny of an IOC panel chaired by Valérie Fourneyron, France's former Sports Minister.

The panel vetted individual applications to compete as part of the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) team at Pyeongchang 2018.