Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro: the key questions answered

After seeing her responsibilities significantly reduced at the request of manager José Mourinho, how has the incident at the end of Saturday’s game against Swansea gone this far and what may happen next?

Eva Carneiro and head physio Jon Fearn, right, leave the bench to treat Eden Hazard. Photograph: Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images

Chelsea’s first-team doctor Eva Carneiro is facing an uncertain future after seeing her responsibilities significantly reduced at the request of manager José Mourinho in the aftermath of Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Swansea at Stamford Bridge. We take a look at how the incident has developed this week and what may happen next.

Who is Eva Carneiro?

Born in Gibraltar to a Spanish father and English mother, Carneiro, now 41, set her stall out to become a doctor working in sport at a very young age. “I was a 16-year-old girl watching Champions league games and I really wanted to be like the guy that runs on the field,” she said at the Swedish FA’s medical conference last year. “I was lucky because I knew what I wanted to do at the age of 16 but there was nobody else doing it.”

Having studied medicine at Nottingham before qualifying as a doctor by working in north London, she then joined the British Olympic Medical Institute’s Intensive Rehabilitation Unit at Bisham Abbey and then earned a place on UK Sport’s training programme. That saw her work closely with British athletes before the Beijing Olympics before moving on to work with the England women’s team.

Carneiro joined Chelsea in 2009 after being recommended director Marina Granvoskaia - a powerful figure at Stamford Bridge - and was briefly interim successor as the club’s medical director to Bryan English before the appointment of Spaniard Paco Biosca by then-manager Andre Villas-Boas. She was retained as part of the first-team staff and became a regular on the Chelsea bench under a succession of managers, being promoted to assistant medical director at the start of last year. Video footage taken of Manchester United and Arsenal fans last season showed she was the victim of grossly offensive chanting on several occasions, with the then-minister for sport, Helen Grant, backing a major campaign against sexism in football.

What happened at Stamford Bridge?

There was a little more than 90 seconds left of the four minutes of allocated injury time when Swansea captain Ashley Williams clattered into Eden Hazard as the Chelsea forward looked to break forward. Williams was rightly shown a yellow by referee Michael Oliver, who then beckoned for the medical staff to enter the pitch to treat Hazard. First-team physiotherapist Jon Fearn was the first to cross the touchline, closely followed by Carneiro.
Mourinho erupted in anger immediately, turning away and shouting obscenities that were clearly audible from the press box. At first, it seemed as though he may be shouting at Hazard, who looked over at his manager as he was led off the pitch. But as Carneiro was making her way back to her seat, Mourinho pulled her to one side and whispered in her ear for a few seconds, before turning towards Fearn as he walked past and loudly venting his frustrations once again.

Eva Carneiro and Jon Fearn treat Eden Hazard on the pitch after he was fouled. Photograph: IAN KINGTON/AFP/Getty Images

After the match, Mourinho was asked about the incident by both Sky Sports and the written press in his Monday briefing and clearly remained angry. “It was the physio and the doctor,” he said. “The problem was that I had ten men and the moment the medical department puts a foot on the pitch then I have got nine men. So for them to do that they must be sure the player has a real problem and not a little knock and with my experience and the way I read the game I could clearly see it was not a problem. But without any doubt, they went to the pitch and left the team with nine men. Without any doubt, if you are involved in the game then you have to understand the game.”

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What options did Chelsea’s medical staff have?
Once Oliver had made the decision to beckon the medical staff onto the pitch, not many. The foul by Williams was deliberate, hard and designed to stop Hazard - the reigning PFA Player of the Year - in his tracks as Chelsea chased a winning goal. Judging by the Belgian’s reaction as he lay on the ground, it was no great surprise to see the referee call for immediate attention.
According to a statement released on Wednesday by the Premier League Doctors Group, “a refusal to run onto 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.

Why did José Mourinho get so angry?

The Portuguese had appeared in good humour at the start of the match as he took his place in the dugout, joking with his opposite number Garry Monk just before kick off. But his mood turned sour after a series of perceived injustices during first-half, in particular when Oliver failed to award a penalty after Diego Costa was tackled by Federico Fernández.

The sending off of Thibaut Courtois certainly didn’t help improve matters, although Mourinho seemed to have calmed down as his 10 men coped admirably with Swansea’s threat and looked more likely to grab the decisive goal. That was why his outburst was so surprising, especially given that Chelsea were about to deliver an attacking free kick into the opposition box and Hazard is not generally known for his heading ability - or indeed his tracking back skills.

It seems that more a likely explanation for his anger stemmed from simmering tensions with his medical staff, with unconfirmed reports that Mourinho has been considering Carneiro’s position as a member of the first-team party since last year.

What are her options now?

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Carneiro’s decision to post a message on her Facebook account is understood to have sealed her demotion, 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 post thanking the public “for their overwhelming support. It was really very much appreciated”, could potentially be the beginning of the end of Chelsea career.

Staff are allowed to have social media accounts but are forbidden from posting anything that criticises the club or the game’s governing bodies. While it appeared a relatively benign statement, many of the messages she received urged Carneiro to remain strong in the wake of what some called Mourinho’s “bullying”, meaning that the manager could have perceived the post as a personal slight against him.

“The best thing about my work is probably that I get to do what I really love every day,” she said in Sweden. “It’s exciting and there is always something new happening. It’s very different form a nine to five job.” With so many of her responsibilities now removed, it remains to be seen whether Carneiro is happy to stay.