Former Chelsea team doctor Eva Carneiro has hit back at José Mourinho and John Terry after the pair revisited the controversy that led to her departure from the club 11 years ago.
Mourinho and Terry discussed the incident in the new Netflix documentary “Mourinho,” with the former Chelsea manager maintaining Carneiro and head physio Jon Fearn were wrong to enter the pitch to treat Eden Hazard during a 2-2 draw with Swansea City in August 2015.
Carneiro responded to the documentary on social media, posting on X: “11 years on and here we are reliving the worst. Hope they made some money.”
She also hit out at Terry, who backed Mourinho’s version of events and said there had been an understanding between Chelsea’s players and medical staff that they would not enter the pitch unless an injury was “really, really bad.”
“We are bound by a medico-legal code of conduct,” Carneiro wrote. “Genuinely it would be healthy for John Terry to learn the rules of the game. It’s been long enough mate.”
Carneiro also shared a statement from the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine which said medical staff have an “absolute duty of care” to attend and assess a player when requested to do so by the referee.
She added in a separate post: “So IT IS really simple. Referee Michael Oliver called us on TWICE, player Eden Hazard requested medical assistance we then made eye contact from side line and he confirmed he needed medical assistance, TWICE.
“At that point my hands are bound as a medical professional.”
The incident occurred in the closing stages of Chelsea’s opening Premier League game of the 2015-16 season. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had already been sent off when Carneiro and Fearn entered the pitch to treat Hazard, meaning the Belgium international was then required to leave the field and Chelsea were temporarily reduced to nine players.
Mourinho reacted angrily at the time and later branded Carneiro and Fearn “impulsive and naive” and said they did not “understand the game.”
Speaking about the incident in the documentary, Mourinho said: “I’m not a doctor but my eyes know when a player is injured and when a player is not injured.
“I knew Eden was not injured but the doctors went on to the pitch and we were left with nine players.
“For me, a lady doctor is the same as a man doctor. So, as always, I used my vocabulary when I’m not happy.
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“There are words in moments where the tension is very, very high.
“Normally, people with football culture, with football DNA or with a football background get over it in one second. In that case, it was different.”
Terry, Chelsea’s captain at the time, backed Mourinho’s account of the expectations placed on the club’s medical staff.
“Medically, José would say unless it’s really, really bad, then they’re not coming on,” Terry said.
“That was the understanding of us as players, the medical staff, everyone bought into that.
“It was a big moment obviously and he took a lot of backlash for that.”
Carneiro and Fearn were removed from first-team duties in the aftermath of the Swansea game. Carneiro left Chelsea the following month and later launched legal proceedings against the club for constructive dismissal as well as a separate claim against Mourinho.
Chelsea and Carneiro reached a settlement in June 2016 after the case went to an employment tribunal. The club apologised to Carneiro, but Mourinho never did publicly.
Mourinho was cleared by the Football Association in September 2015 of making discriminatory comments towards Carneiro during the incident. He was sacked by Chelsea less than three months later following a poor start to their Premier League title defence.
