Real Madrid coach, Jose Mourinho, has brought up his well-known disagreement with former Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro from 2015. He insisted that her gender did not affect his reaction during that incident.
GB News reported on Monday that Mourinho discussed the issue in his new three-part Netflix documentary, MOURINHO, more than 11 years after it happened.
The argument started after Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Swansea City in August 2015. Carneiro and physiotherapist Jon Fearn went onto the pitch to treat Eden Hazard late in the game.
Mourinho was upset about this, thinking Hazard did not need treatment. Hazard's brief exit from the game left Chelsea with only nine players since goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had already been sent off.
Carneiro claimed later that Mourinho discriminated against her because she is a woman. She said he used a disrespectful Portuguese term towards her.
Mourinho called Carneiro and Fearn “impulsive and naive.” Carneiro was removed from first-team duties and left Chelsea the next month.
In the documentary, Mourinho defended what he did. He said gender did not matter in his response. “For me, a lady doctor is the same as a man’s doctor,” he explained. “So, as always, I use my vocabulary when I’m not happy.”
“There are words in moments where the tension is very, very high. Normally, people with football culture, with football DNA, with football background, they go over it in one second. In that case, it was different.”
Mourinho also said he believed Hazard was not hurt when the medical staff came on the pitch. “I’m not a doctor, but my eyes know when a player is injured, and they know when a player is not injured,” he said.
“I knew that he was not injured, but the doctors went to the pitch, and in that moment we were left with nine players.”
Hazard also spoke about the incident in the documentary. He called it “nothing special” but added that “with Jose everything is bigger.”
Former Chelsea captain John Terry said that players understood Mourinho’s views on medical treatment. “Medically, he would say unless it’s really, really bad, then they’re not coming on,” Terry explained.
“That was the understanding for 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. There was a lot of heat on the football club.”
Carneiro later took legal action against Chelsea and Mourinho, claiming constructive dismissal from the club and discrimination from Mourinho.
In 2016, they reached a settlement, but the details were kept private. Chelsea later apologized to Carneiro and her family without any reservations.
Mourinho did not apologize publicly at that time. GB News reported that his recent comments did not include an apology.
This controversy is one of the most talked-about events from Mourinho’s second time at Chelsea, which ended with his firing in December 2015, just months after he led the team to the Premier League title.
The documentary also reveals that Mourinho had agreed to take over as Manchester United manager in 2013 before he returned to Chelsea.
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