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Former Socceroos doctor slams Mourinho

The Chelsea manager expressed his disappointment with the decision of Carneiro and physiotherapist Jon Hearn to rush onto the pitch to attend to Eden Hazard during Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Swansea.

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Ms Carneiro joined Chelsea in 2009 as a reserve-team doctor before being promoted by Andre Villas-Boas to take the first-team role in 2011. Image: PA.

“The Chelsea medical staff were clearly summoned on to the field of play by the match referee to attend to a player“.

Mourinho said after the match, “I was unhappy with my medical staff. They were impulsive and naive”.

“And whoever decides a player needs help, medical staff have an absolute obligation to fully assess the athlete until satisfied they are fit to continue participation”.

According to Goal.com, Peter Brukner believes that Jose Mourinho should apologize for publicly humiliating the Chelsea doctor after the game.

Not because of Thibaut Courtois’s red card, not because his team lacked any energy until they were down to 10, but because the team’s doctor Eva Carneiro had the audacity to do her job – treating an injured player.

Carneiro has served as first team doctor since 2011 and worked with two other Chelsea managers prior to Mourinho. They have the right not to enter the pitch – and medics elsewhere have turned down the invitation – but did they want to risk not checking that there was a more serious problem with Hazard than just tiredness?

“Factors extraneous to the immediate medical needs of the patient (such as the stage and state of the game) can not be part of their consideration at such time”, it said.

“He (Mourinho) has a player who has gone down, has remained down and the referee considered it serious enough to summon the doctor and physio”.

Mourinho’s actions have been labelled “unjust in the extreme” by the Premier League Doctors’ Group, which also accused the Portuguese of putting results ahead of player safety.

Alan Brazil disagreed, suggesting the medical staff did not understand the situation and that Hazard perhaps went to ground too easily, which is becoming increasingly common in modern football.

Carneiro later posted on Facebook to thank the public for their support, which is unlikely to have amused Chelsea, or indeed Mourinho.

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“I thought it was appalling behaviour by the manager”, he told the Liverpool Echo.

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