According to reports from The Daily Mail this afternoon, FIFA will ask managers and coaches to give their opinions on a new code of practice for team doctors and medical staff.
It follows Jose Mourinho’s controversial handling of his medical entourage after a 2-2 draw with Swansea City on the opening day of the Premier League season, in which team doctor Eva Carneiro and physio Jon Fearn entered the field to treat a downed Eden Hazard without his consent.
The Blues boss accused Carneiro and Fearn of naivety in his post-match interview and subsquentely decided to axe them from his bench for Chelsea’s following league outing against Manchester City.
He said after the home draw against the Welsh outfit; “I wasn’t happy with my medical staff because even if you are a medical doctor or secretary on the bench, you have to understand the game.
“If you go to the pitch to assist a player, then you must be sure that a player has a serious problem. I was sure that Eden didn’t have a serious problem. He had a knock and was very tired.”
The incident has raised some puzzling questions regarding where a doctor’s duty ends and the needs of the team begins, which football’s world governing body are now keen to answer.
Medical committee chairman Michel D’Hooghe placed the issue on FIFA’s agenda for a recent meeting in Zurich and he’s now in the process of setting up a subcommittee who will draft a new code of practice – with the input of managers and head coaches from across Europe.
He said; “We also need the voice of the coaches on this sub-committee when we draw up this code. On the one hand the team doctors have to abide by the Hippocratic Oath and intervene when a player is in medical need, but it also important to take account of the fact they work as part of a group under the coach.”
Meanwhile, Carneiro is reportedly considering legal action after being banished from match days, training sessions and the team hotel.
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