Eva Caneiro: Where do we go from here…

Eva Carneiro: what really happened with the Special One?

Carneiro’s decision to post a message on her Facebook account is understood to have sealed her demotion, and minimized involvement with the Chelsea FC first team, meaning she will no longer attend training sessions, matches or enter the team hotel. Having only previously made one post on her public page, her message thanking the public “for their overwhelming support. It was really very much appreciated” could potentially be the beginning of the end of her Chelsea career.

Carneiro, who is in her fifth season in her role, was accused of not understanding the game by the Chelsea manager for effectively reducing his side to nine men when she went on to the pitch to assess Hazard’s injury.

“I was unhappy with my medical staff. They were impulsive and naive,”

“Whether you are a kit man, doctor or secretary on the bench you have to understand the game.

“You have to know you have one player less and to assist a player you must be sure he has a serious problem. I was sure Eden did not have a serious problem. He had a knock. He was tired.” Mourinho told Sky Sports.

According to a statement released on Wednesday by the Premier League Doctors’ Group, “a refusal to run on to the pitch would have breached the duty of care required of the medical team to their patient” – so Fearn and Carneiro were simply following protocol.

Eamonn Salmon, chief executive of the Football Medical Association – which represents professional medical staff in the sport – has backed Carneiro and physio Jon Fearn while Liverpool’s former head of medicine Peter Brukner says Mourinho should “apologise” to the doctor for his conduct, and public slander of Carneiro.

Unlike the aforementioned, a few like her predecessor Ralph Rogers have criticized the Chelsea medic staff, and her team in attending to Hazard. Former Chelsea’s first team doctor under Carlo Ancelotti, Rogers said the Facebook comment was not “ethical”.

He further added it will be “difficult” for the 41-year-old to regain Mourinho’s trust.

 

Carneiro tended to Hazard after he was tripped in the final minutes of Saturday’s 2-2 draw with the Welsh club, meaning the Belgium forward had to leave the pitch.
It reduced Chelsea to nine men as goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had already been sent off and Mourinho afterwards said his medical staff were “impulsive and naive” and did not “understand the game”.

Carneiro’s response on Facebook garthered overwhelming support, but Rogers thought otherwise. Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live, Rogers said: “You are support staff. You’re not one of the stars. There’s almost a slap in the face to the manager.

“Why would she go to social media? It’s something we, as a profession, ethically should not be doing.”
Carneiro certainly now looks set to lose her place on the Chelsea bench for Sunday’s Premier League match against Manchester City. “There has to be a very good relationship between the medical staff, or the physician, and the manager.
“The manager has to be able to trust the medical judgement he’s receiving and when that trust is broken, where do you go? It’s going to be difficult.”