FIFA’s medical commission will this week discuss Jose Mourinho’s battle with Chelsea club doctor, Eva Carneiro, amid growing pressure for a settlement by the English Premier League Champions.
Mourinho has refused to back down from criticism of Carneiro and head physio Jon Fearn after they went on the pitch to treat Eden Hazard in the 2-2 home draw with Swansea last month.
They have since been excluded from the team bench by Mourinho and have consulted lawyers.
Carneiro and Fearn’s medical intervention – called on by Hazard and the referee – reduced Chelsea to nine players as goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had already been sent off. An angry Mourinho called it “impulsive and naïve.”
FIFA’s top medical experts have already backed Carneiro and FIFA’s medical commission is expected to issue a statement backing the Chelsea doctor after a meeting on Friday.
“You would expect me to support the team doctor,” said medical commission chairman Michel D’Hooghe, a longstanding FIFA executive member, when he announced it would be discussed.
Mary O’Rourke, one of Britain’s top medical lawyers who has been involved in landmark cases on football injuries, said FIFA would back the 41-year-old Carneiro.
“It is an important point of principle,” she said on the sidelines of the Soccerex convention in Manchester. I would like to see the message go round the world – and I think you will see FIFA on Friday saying the same – they did nothing wrong because their duty was to the player as a patient, their duty was to the referee,” O’Rourke said.
“Their job in the club is to look after the players, and not to run the team and not to be tactically aware.”
