Eva Carneiro: Jose Mourinho says that doctor and physio Jon Fearn could return to the Chelsea bench in future

Jose Mourinho said today that first team doctor Eva Carneiro and head physiotherapist Jon Fearn would not be on the Chelsea bench for the game against Manchester City on Sunday – but said that he would not rule them out returning at some point.

In his press conference with broadcasters today at Cobham, Mourinho refused to discuss the details of his decision or why he had turned on the pair for treating Eden Hazard in Saturday’s game against Swansea – despite the referee Michael Oliver clearly waving them onto the pitch. Mourinho said that deciding which of his medical team he included on the bench – there are Premier League restrictions - was a weekly question he faced.

The Chelsea manager began by expressing his irritation that the press conference room at Cobham was more full than usual, a consequence of the interest in the story about Carneiro and Fearn. He said: “Look, I hope this room is full because the champions are going to play against the champions for last year, because the transfer window. Because you have hopefully a big match on Sunday.”

In a long preamble to his answer about whether Carneiro and Fearn would be on the bench on Sunday, he said: “I am not surprised at your question. Some people here don’t even like football. They came just for other reasons. I don’t want to run away from it, not even be critical of you because of your question.

“First of all I want to say I have a fantastic medical department with a top leader, Dr Paco Biosca and more than a dozen professional doctors, physios, masseurs and specialists in different areas. I have a very good relation with them. They tell me they were never praised so much as they have been in the last couple of years.

“Normally when things go well managers keep it for themselves. It is when things go badly they talk about the medical department. I have praised them many times in the last couple of years. They also told me yesterday that we [Mourinho and medical department] have had disagreements in this period. [They said] ‘We need disagreements to improve’. We work together and improve together. That’s the way we do things.

“I want to make it very, very clear, your question about the bench. I have to say that for some people the bench is very important and I understand that for you it is very important. For other people it’s not that important. For other people it’s not what people think you do, it’s what you do. The bench is my responsibility, it’s my decision.

“Every week I face a decision about the bench … with the medical department only two goes to the bench and there are more than a dozen. It is important to be on the bench for some. For others it’s more important they are contributing behind the scenes and what they do for the good of the team.

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“Jon Fearn and Dr Carneiro will not be on the bench [on Sunday[] but that doesn’t mean the same for the rest of the season or the rest of their careers. They will not be on the bench on Sunday but that doesn’t mean they will not be in the future.

“My relation with the majority of people who work with me is a relation that is open to disagreement. The kind of relation allows us to this kind of relation [with the staff]. It is enough now [questions about Carneiro]. The ones [in the room] who like football, please stay.”