August 13 – Leading football medics have joined forces to denounce Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho for his treatment of the club’s female head doctor.
After Saturday’s opening 2-2 draw against Swansea, Mourinho took a swipe at his own medical staff, led by Eva Carneiro, describing them as “impulsive and naive” for treating Belgian midfield star Eden Hazard in stoppage time with Chelsea already down to 10 men following the sending-off of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
According to unconfirmed reports, whilst remaining first-team doctor on a day-to-day basis, Carneiro is apparently set to lose her place on the bench during matches, starting with Sunday’s trip to Manchester City, one of the biggest fixtures of the season.
Footage actually showed the referee twice turning to the Chelsea bench after Hazard went down following a challenge and signalled for medical attention.
Peter Brukner, former head of sports medicine and sports science for Liverpool, was quoted as saying Mourinho’s behaviour towards Carneiro was “absolutely appalling” and that he owed his medical staff an apology.
“He has a player who has gone down, who has remained down and the referee obviously considered it serious enough to summon on the doctor and the physio,” said Brukner.
“They went on as they must do when they are summoned on and the player is down and, as a result, the player had to come off the ground. What do you expect the doctor to do? Just ignore the referee beckoning them on?” he said.
The Australian said Carneiro and physio Jon Fearn acted “correctly” by waiting for referee Michael Oliver to wave them on to treat Hazard.
“It’s got nothing to do with the manager. You don’t have doctors telling a manager to play someone up front or play 4-3-3. She has been publicly humiliated in front of the biggest audience there is and she had not done the wrong thing.”
Sammy Margo, the first female physiotherapist to work in football in England, said she was not sure the manager’s reaction would have been as severe had the doctor not been a woman.
“Being a woman in football draws a little bit more attention than it would ordinarily,” she told BBC Radio.
The Premier League Doctors’ Group said refusing to treat Hazard would have breached duty.
Dr Mark Gillett, the group’s chairman who is also West Bromwich Albion’s performance director, described the decision to remove her from the touchline as “unjust in the extreme”.
As Chelsea refused to comment on an “internal staffing matter”, Eamonn Salmon, chief executive of the Football Medical Association, said his organisation fully supported the actions of its “members and colleagues in this incident who acted with integrity and professionalism at all times, fully cognisant of the rules of the game and in full accordance with that duty of care to their patient”.
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