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Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has responded to the medical staff row that occurred during his side’s 2-2 draw against Swansea in their opening fixture of the new Premier League season.
The Portuguese came under heavy scrutiny over the past week after he was visibly angry in the dugout over his team of doctors who rushed to attend to Eden Hazard’s injuries while they were already one man short.
And Mourinho addressed the issue during the club’s weekly press conference where he confirmed that both doctor Eva Carneiro and first-team physio Jon Fearn will not be on Chelsea’s bench when they travel to the Etihad stadium to face Manchester City. However, he also cleared the fact that it is in no way an indication that they won’t feature for the rest of the season.
Talking to the reporters, he said, “Dr Jon Fearn and Dr Eva Carneiro will not be on the bench, but doesn’t mean for the rest of the season.”
“My decision does not mean they won’t be on the bench in the future. If you want to speak to me about football, I’m here. If you want to ask about other things, I’m not here.”
“The game is emotional. Football is football. The match is the match. Everything after the match can be different, especially after the meeting I had with my medical department yesterday,” added the Blues boss.
‘We need disagreements to improve’
After much criticism of Mourinho’s behaviour, the fans stood by the Chelsea club doctor and sent her messages of support. And she took to he official Facebook page to thank the fans, saying: “I would like to thank the general public for their overwhelming support. Really very much appreciated.”
And the former Real Madrid manager acknowledged his medical staff stressing that he shares a good relationship with them
“I want to say I have a fantastic medical department led by Dr Paco Biosca, I have a good relationship with them,” Mourinho commented.
“With more than a dozen professionals between doctors, physio, masseurs – I have a very good relationship with them. They tell me all the time that they were never praised as much as they were by me in the last two years.
“Normally when things go well managers keep it to themselves, I have praised them lots of times in the last couple of years and they don’t forget that. They also told me that we have had disagreements during that period, we need disagreements to improve. We work together and we improve together, That is the way we do things. It is a relationship that is open to disagreement,” he concluded.
