Chelsea team doctor Eva Carneiro, the highest-profile woman doctor in the Premier League, could lose her place on the bench after being at the receiving end of a tirade from José Mourinho on Saturday.
Carneiro, 41, will continue to serve as the first team doctor, working with the squad on a daily basis from the club’s Cobham training base. However, under revised arrangements, she is not allowed to attend training sessions or travel with the team for both home and away games.
On Saturday, Carneiro and her colleague Jon Fearn provoked the Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho when they rushed onto the pitch towards closing moments of a 2-2 draw against Swansea to treat injured winger Eden Hazard.
Medical staff’s entry onto the pitch ruled Hazard out of the subsequent phase of play, reducing the number of outfield players to only eight and leaving the defending champions vulnerable to another goal from Swansea.
The Portuguese gestured furiously on the touchline and Fear appeared to have received the whole outburst from the man often obsessed by finest of details.
Mourinho didn’t hold back longer to ventilate his anger afterwards when he publicly blasted the duo in an extraordinary press, calling them naive who lack even basic understanding of the game rules.
“I wasn’t happy with them because even if you are a medical doctor or secretary on the bench, you have to understand the game,” Mourinho said.
Despite his team’s excellent fitness record last season, Mourinho on several occasions had urged Chelsea’s medical department to improve, ahead of his post-Swansea outburst.
This is not the first time that former Real Madrid boss has clashed with a team doctor. In 2005, Neil Frazer left the job after a dispute regarding the fitness of Arjen Robben.
