Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro backed by Football Medical Association in dispute with Jose Mourinho
Chelsea first team doctor Eva Carneiro has been backed by the Football Medical Association after falling foul of Jose Mourinho's wrath last weekend.
Read more: Carneiro set for punishment after Mou run-in
Carneiro is expected to be relieved of duties at matches and on the training ground after Mourinho publicly criticised her and physiotherapists Jon Fearn's eagerness to run onto the field to attend to an apparently injured Eden Hazard during Saturday's 2-2 draw with Swansea.
Mourinho called the medical staff "impulsive and naive" for rushing onto the field to treat Hazard in the dying moments of the game as treating the winger meant Chelsea would be temporarily reduced to nine men as they chased a winner with Thibaut Courtois having already been sent off.
Yet the representative body of football medical staff today insisted Carneiro had simply been performing her "duty and obligation" to her patient beyond extraneous factors such as "the stage and state of the game".
In a statement Football Medical Association chief executive Eamonn Salmon explained:
"If a player sustains or appears to sustain an injury and indicates that he needs assistance, it is the duty of the referee to permit medical assessment and evaluation to be provided.
"At that moment the player becomes a patient of the medical team and it is the duty and obligation of club medical staff to attend to that patient accordingly and without prejudice to the interests of anyone else including the club employing them.
"The Football Medical Association fully supports the actions of our members and colleagues in this incident who acted with integrity and professionalism at all times, fully cognisant of the rules of the game and in full accordance with that duty of care to their patient.
"Factors extraneous to the immediate medical needs of the patient (such as the stage and state of the game) cannot be part of their consideration at such time."