While Chelsea’s medical department finds itself dealing with an ever expanding list of players requiring treatment, many supporters are getting excited by the remote prospect of Dr Eva Carneiro returning - based on a cryptic tweet sent last week.
Head coach Graham Potter could be without up to 10 members of his squad for Sunday’s FA Cup third-round tie away to Manchester City after Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic became the latest to come off injured in the first half of last night’s 1-0 defeat to the Premier League champions at Stamford Bridge.
Potter will also be without first-choice full backs Reece James and Ben Chilwell, goalkeeper Edouard Mendy and long-term absentees Wesley Fofana, N’Golo Kante, Armando Broja and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Mason Mount is recovering from a less serious knock.
And the worsening injury crisis led to one opportunistic fan sending Dr Carneiro a message on social media enquiring whether she would be interested in returning.
Surprisingly the Gibraltarian doctor replied with one word. “Venga.” Which translates to “let’s go” or “come on.”
That predictably gained a lot of attention from fans begging her to return to the club she departed following shocking criticism from Jose Mourinho in 2015 that led to an employment tribunal brought by Dr Carneiro that ended with a private settlement, reported to have been worth about £5m, and Chelsea publishing an unreserved apology.
Dr Carneiro has spent the subsequent years working in a number of roles, including a consultancy role in Qatar during the build up to the World Cup.
But much of her time has been spent at a private clinic in Harley Street, The Sports Medical Group, which offers independent services to professional athletes.
Although her social media audience is significant and she is active on various platforms, Dr Carneiro has seldom spoken on the record to journalists since leaving Chelsea.
In a 2017 interview with L’Equipe she said: “If I’m honest, it took me almost a year to be able to watch a football game. The final of the 2016 Champions League was the only game that I could sit down in front of last year.”
She has also invested in non-League side Lewes, alongside tennis star Andy Murray, having learned of a campaign the club was running to call out misogynistic language being used at football. Lewes are the first club in England to give their women’s team an equal budget to their men’s side.
"Love the beautiful game,” Dr Carneiro wrote on Instagram at the time of her investment. “Imagine using its power for good. Imagine finding a club with values at the centre of its ethos. Imagine equal pay and equal facility and pitch access for men and women.”
