Boot Room: EPL season openers highlight pressure on medics

Dubai: The opening weekend of the English Premier League (EPL) season has wonderfully portrayed how medical staff are being pulled in opposite directions.

On the one hand you have Jose Mourinho labelling his own club doctor Eva Carneiro “naive” for running on to treat a seemingly injured Eden Hazard in stoppage time, while Chelsea were defending a set piece at 2-2.

And on the other you have the clash of heads between Oliver Giroud and James Tomkins in Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat to West Ham United, where both players returned to the field of play moments after seemingly losing consciousness.

Mourinho’s grouse was that Hazard wasn’t badly injured enough to warrant medical attention and that the presence of a medic on the field meant the player would automatically have to come to the sidelines to receive treatment at a time when Chelsea were already down to ten men and in search of a late winner.

In Arsenal’s case, they confidently declared Giroud wasn’t concussed and allowed him back to play the remaining 14 minutes, despite only carrying out the briefest of medical assessments. Specialists say you need seven minutes to correctly assess a concussion, but football allows medics just three minutes, while rugby allows ten.

Returning to play with a concussion is known to exacerbate long-term brain injury if the player suffers a secondary knock in quick succession.

Medics are also supposed to override a coach’s decision as to whether a player firstly needs medical attention, and whether or not that player can then continue. But Mourinho’s attitude towards his medical staff on Saturday undermined these powers and demonstrated just what club doctors are up against. And it’s public humiliation either way, both if they run on early to attend a man down, or don’t run on quick enough and administer long enough treatment when called upon.

If Hazard was indeed feigning an injury, or not badly injured enough to warrant medical attention, Mourinho should have called out the player and not the medic. It was a cheap shot from the ‘Special One’, who is clearly feeling the heat after an underwhelming start to his team’s EPL title defence.

A title defence, and the will to get back into the game, shouldn’t override the well-being of your players. And maybe a rule to allow more than just three substitutions, or even rolling and temporary substitutions, could relieve some of the pressure on getting split — and potentially life and death — decisions right every time.