Mourinho under fire for action on team medic

London: Jose Mourinho has come under fierce attack for cutting back the first-team duties of Eva Carneiro and Jon Fearn and has been accused by the Premier League Doctors’ Group of putting results ahead of the welfare of his players.

In a statement released exclusively to The Daily Telegraph, the doctors’ group has claimed Mourinho’s decision to change the roles of club doctor Carneiro and first-team physiotherapist Fearn was unjust. Mourinho has received wide-ranging criticism from a number of medical groups, professionals and the Professional Footballers’ Association, but the club are unlikely to alter any staff decisions on the back of outside pressure.

Neither Carneiro nor Fearn are not expected to be on the bench for Sunday’s game against Manchester City. While keeping her title of club doctor, Carneiro is no longer able to attend training sessions, games or enter the team hotel. Mourinho suggested that Carneiro and Fearn did not “understand the game” after they attempted to treat Eden Hazard in stoppage time of Chelsea’s draw against Swansea City.

Video footage, however, showed that before the Chelsea medical staff ran on to the pitch, referee Michael Oliver turned twice to the bench after Hazard went down and signalled for the pair to come on. Chelsea’s players believe the real reason for the apparent punishment is that Carneiro responded to Mourinho’s post-match rant about the incident by writing a message on Facebook that read: “I would like to thank the general public for their overwhelming support. Really very much appreciated.”

Led by chairman Mark Gillett, who is director of performance at West Bromwich Albion, the Premier League Doctors’ Group released a statement that expressed “concern” that Mourinho’s actions put out a message that results are more important than the well-being of players. The statement said: “Doctors working for Premier League teams and attending matches in a professional capacity are bound by the same professional and ethical boundaries as any other doctor practising in the United Kingdom. “The General Medical Council issue clear guidelines on good medical practice that need to be met in order for a doctor to maintain a licence to practise and satisfy the criteria for professional revalidation every five years. Maintenance of the duty of care from the doctor to the patient is fundamental to these guidelines, even when the patient is a footballer playing in a Premier League game.

“The Premier League Doctors’ Group considers that removing Dr Eva Carneiro from the bench for Chelsea’s next match is unjust in the extreme. In the incident last Saturday, the medical staff were clearly summoned onto the field by the referee to attend to a player. A refusal to run onto the pitch would have breached the duty of care required of the medical team to their patient.

“It is a huge concern that Dr Carneiro has been subjected to unprecedented media scrutiny and a change in her professional role, merely because she adhered to her code of professional conduct and did her job properly. Dr Carneiro has universal and total support from her colleagues at the Premier League Doctors’ Group. It is also of great concern that at a time when the Premier League and the Premier League Doctors’ Group are intensifying efforts to safeguard player welfare, this incident demonstrates that the medical care of players appears to be secondary to the result of the game.

Carneiro and Fearn have also received support from the Football Medical Association, which released a statement saying: “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.”

-