CHELSEA MANAGER Jose Mourinho this afternoon that team doctor Eva Carneiro and head physiotherapist Jon Fearn have been removed from match-day duties, but said it was not permanent.
Mourinho was angered when Carneiro and Fearn ran on to treat Eden Hazard during last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Swansea City, which temporarily left Chelsea with nine players due to Thibaut Courtois’s earlier dismissal.
Reports emerged on Tuesday that Carneiro and Fearn would no longer attend matches or training sessions, but while Mourinho said they would not be on the bench for Sunday’s game at Manchester City, it was not a permanent move.
“Jon Fearn and Dr Carneiro will not be on the bench, but it doesn’t mean Sunday is the rest of our season or our careers,” Mourinho told journalists at his weekly press conference.
“They won’t be on the bench on Sunday. That’s clear, it’s my decision, my responsibility, but it doesn’t mean they won’t be in the future.”
Mourinho did not disclose why Carneiro and Fearn had been sidelined for the trip to the Etihad Stadium, but said that he had a “very, very good relationship” with his medical department.
Speaking after the Swansea game, Mourinho said that Carneiro and Fearn had been “impulsive and naive” by going on to treat Hazard and said their behaviour showed that they did not “understand the game”.
His conduct has been criticised by several groups representing medical professionals working in English football, including the Premier League Doctors’ Group and the Football Medical Association.
Earlier, Arsene Wenger said that Chelsea’s first-team doctor had been clearly following the rules.
“It is a problem inside the club that if you are not united, it is more difficult. It is the trust and unity that makes the strength,” the Frenchman, a long-time Mourinho adversary, told a press conference.
“You know you speak about that story at Chelsea. First of all I have not followed that as you know I do not have great interest about what is going on at Chelsea.
“Secondly the rules are quite clear that when the referee gives an indication that the medical (staff) can come on, they come on.
“After that what happens specifically in the situation I don’t know, but the rules are quite clear. It is the referee who makes the decision.”
FIFA’s chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak has also spoken out in support of 41-year-old Carneiro, a Chelsea employee since 2009.
