What happened to former Chelsea physio Eva Carneiro who got last laugh over Jose Mourinho

It was the moment that destroyed the illusion of unity at Chelsea – an infamous bust-up that became one of the most notorious in Premier League history, in fact.

And it would send the Blues into meltdown both on and off the pitch. Eva Carneiro, the club’s esteemed team doctor, had raced onto the pitch to attend to an injured Eden Hazard during a match in 2015, only to be met with Jose Mourinho‘s boiling rage.

What should have been a standard act of medical duty instead sparked a verbal feud, a poisonous exit, and a bitter legal fight that would ultimately reshape Carneiro’s career – and stain Mourinho’s reputation. However, it was Carneiro who had the last laugh.

As Chelsea’s season fell apart, Mourinho’s once-radiant aura dimmed, and his authority collapsed in the ensuing months. Here, football.london takes a look back at one of Stamford Bridge’s most peculiar internal disputes, dissecting what transpired, its aftermath, and where things stand now.

Carneiro joined Chelsea in 2009 after brief stints with both West Ham and the England women’s national team. The Gibraltar native, who received a medical degree from the University of Nottingham, was promoted to first team duties in 2011 when Andre Villas-Boas was manager, and stayed in the role under successors Roberto Di Matteo, Rafael Benitez and Mourinho.

For two years, her collaboration with ‘The Special One’ was without incident. However, the dynamic shifted dramatically on the first day of the 2015/16 season. Defending champions Chelsea were aiming for a straightforward victory against Swansea at Stamford Bridge but encountered difficulties when goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois received a red card in the second half.

Shortly after, Hazard went down with an injury, leading Carneiro and fellow physio Jon Fearn to hurry onto the pitch to attend to the midfielder. That infuriated Mourinho as Chelsea momentarily had to continue with only nine players while Hazard received treatment off the field.

After the match, Mourinho vented his frustration about the situation, criticising his medical team by branding them “impulsive and naive”.

“I wasn’t happy because even if you are a medical doctor or secretary on the bench, you have to understand the game. You had to know you have one player less,” he said.

“So if you go to the pitch to assist a player you must be sure the player has a serious problem. I was sure Eden [Hazard] didn’t have a serious problem. He had a knock and was very, very tired. My medical department [were] naive. They left me at a counter-attack with two players less.”

Later, it was claimed that Mourinho had called Carneiro “filha da puta”, a Portuguese insult which translates as “daughter of a b****/w****”. Mourinho, however, insisted he said “filho da puta” [son of a b****/w****] instead, comparing the insult to ‘f*** off’. “Filho da puta is a phrase I often use, all of the players know it,” he explained. “There is no sexist connotation in the use of the phrase – it is just like saying ‘f*** off’.”

Following a review by a Portuguese language specialist, the FA exonerated Mourinho from allegations of making discriminatory comments towards Carneiro. Despite this, accusations of sexism persisted, leading to a souring of relations between Mourinho and Carneiro, and her being demoted from first-team duties. She resigned from her role at the club just over a month later.

In October 2015, days after Carneiro’s exit, her legal representatives issued a notice of a constructive dismissal claim against Chelsea. Carneiro also filed a separate claim against Mourinho for sex discrimination and harassment.

Private talks were held in early 2016 about the situation with Carneiro, by which point Mourinho had already been sacked by Chelsea. The club later made a full apology for any distress caused to Carneiro and her family, stating: “We wish to place on record that in running onto the pitch Dr Carneiro was following both the rules of the game and fulfilling her responsibility to the players as a doctor, putting their safety first.”

An employment tribunal was informed that Carneiro had turned down a £1.2million settlement offer and had stipulated conditions for her return, including a 40 per cent pay rise, a year’s salary as severance, inclusion in a bonus scheme “to properly reward me for my contribution to the club’s success”, and a “substantial payment” for the distress she experienced.

Moments before Carneiro was due to testify, she agreed to a settlement in her case against Chelsea. According to the Daily Mail, the agreement included a £5m pay-off, along with the withdrawal of her claim against Mourinho, though details of the deal were never officially released.

Carneiro expressed her relief in a statement afterwards. “I am relieved that today we have been able to conclude this tribunal case. It has been an extremely difficult and distressing time for me and my family and I now look forward to moving forward with my life. My priority has always been the health and safety of the players and fulfilling my duty of care as a doctor.”

Given the size of her reported payoff and Chelsea’s ‘unreserved’ apology, it’s fair to say that Carneiro got the last laugh.

Since her departure, Carneiro, now 51, has kept busy with her private practice, the Sports Medical Group, on Harley Street, London. She also acted as a private consultant for the Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

In 2024, she ventured into football club ownership by investing in Lewes FC, a team in the Isthmian League Premier Division. She’s not the only high-profile name involved with the club; Judy Murray, Andy Murray’s mother, and British singer-songwriter Kate Nash also hold stakes.

Despite landing back on her feet, Carneiro admitted that things weren’t easy for her following her Chelsea departure, which she claims seriously impacted her career. “It’s impossible to go through something that I went through for the best part of a year of my life and not be changed by it,” she told talkSPORT in 2020. “But it hasn’t put me off at all.

“It’s fair to say I needed time off, I needed to enjoy my job again and be a doctor again without the complications of being in the limelight. I was in every paper in every country for a really long time and I wasn’t at all comfortable with that.

“Certain individuals in football wanted to treat me like I did something wrong when it was clear I was only doing my job. In football, whether it’s racism, child abuse, athlete safeguarding and respect for the medical treatment – a change of culture is needed to change the things which are ugly about it.”