11th August, 2015
Chelsea club doctor Eva Carneiro is reporedly to be banned from sitting on the Blues bench during matches.
The Premier League’s most talked-about doctor – indeed, its only talked-about doctor – hit the headlines at the weekend when she was given a public dressing down by Jose Mourinho after the 2-2 draw with Swansea. Carneiro responded with a Facebook post which is unlikely to have gone down well with Chelsea.
Mourinho blamed the medical staff for being too quick to rush to treat Eden Hazard when he went down in the later stages of the match, hurting Chelsea’s chances of scoring a winner.
And the Daily Telegraph reports that Carneiro will probably not sit on the bench again after a “backroom shake-up” by Mourinho. “It is understood that while Carneiro will remain Chelsea’s first-team doctor, she will not attend training sessions, games or enter the hotel. As things stand, she is not expected to be on the bench for Sunday’s trip to Manchester City.”
“Carneiro, however, will still carry out her work with first-team players at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground in what is being seen as a re-tasking of duties. It remains to be seen whether Carneiro will accept her new lower-profile role long term, although she is not the only member of Mourinho’s staff to have their working arrangements changed.”
The timing of a change in Carneiro’s role suggests that Mourinho’s anger about her conduct on Saturday was genuine, rather than just an attempt to deflect criticism away from his side’s poor showing. “I wasn’t happy with my medical staff because even if you are a medical doctor or secretary on the bench, you have to understand the game,” said the Chelsea manager on Saturday evening.
“If you go to the pitch to assist a player, then you must be sure that a player has a serious problem. I was sure that Eden didn’t have a serious problem. He had a knock and was very tired. “My medical department left me with eight fit outfield players in a counter attack after a set piece and we were worried we didn’t have enough players left.”
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