When a footballer is genuinely injured he is usually substituted and the game continues with eleven against eleven. When a footballer feigns injury he is usually booked and the game continues with eleven against eleven, (assuming the referee or linesman spots the deception). In between these two extremes is the “ouch, that hurt!” type of injury.
This is a minor injury which is not serious enough to warrant a substitution. It may not even require any attention from the physio but this one is the difficult one to call. If the player is more seriously injured than at first thought, the physio will be in trouble for not immediately attending. If the physio attends and the injury is not serious then the club may suffer as the player will need to leave the pitch until allowed back on by the referee.
All the annoyance and confusion caused by Eden Hazard going down injured against Swansea City towards the end of the game at Stamford Bridge can be summed up in five words. The law is an ass.
Jose Mourinho, occasionally, can be an ass. The medical team at Chelsea were trying to do their jobs, which means they were not being asses.
The problem here is that everybody, except the law, is right. Mourinho is right when he says that, because his player received medical attention, he would have to leave the pitch. This left Chelsea defending a corner with only nine men, really through no fault of their own.
The medical team are right because they were waved on by the referee and, rightly, gave no consideration to the laws of the game. Their only concern was for the health of the player.
The law is wrong. Not only is the law wrong, the law is ridiculous. Why should a player who receives treatment on the pitch for maybe 30 seconds to a minute, then have to leave the pitch only to come on again when the referee deems it appropriate?
What about the goalkeepers? Not only do goalkeepers get preferential treatment when a centre forward breathes too heavily on them in an aerial clash, (this is an automatic free kick in favour of the goalkeeper), they also do not have to leave the pitch after treatment for an injury.
What would happen if, for example, a goalkeeper gets injured whilst conceding a penalty and needs treatment on the pitch? By law he has to leave the pitch while the penalty is taken, except that he doesn’t.
As per usual it’s a case of a law being applied to some but not to others.
We know this goes on all the time in the real world but surely it should be easier to have blanket rules controlling 22 men on a football pitch.
So, if it is discretionary for a goalkeeper, it can be discretionary for all the other players as well. All the referees have to do is agree that they will not enforce this rule for any player during the season. Guess what? This ridiculous rule would soon be removed.
At the end of the day, Jose Mourinho has overreacted. He needs to realise that his medical team are not trained sportsmen and women they are trained doctors and they reacted exactly the way a trained doctor should. If he wants them to react differently then he should hold a meeting BEFORE the season starts, where he can explain his reasons for wanting them to act unprofessionally. They can then choose to either agree with him or not.
Mourinho knows that Hazard is a faker that’s why his reaction to the medical team , because I don’t want to think that he doesn’t care about his star player. So this doctor is punished because she did her job. But what about Hazard for acting rather than playing football will he get a standing ovation ?
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The reason for the rule is to discourage players like Hazard from play acting/time wasting. While the rule may not seem very useful or effective it is a rule nonetheless. Hazard caused the problem, not the medical staff and Jose had no reason to react to his medical staff in the way he did as they were reacting the way they were supposed to.
For the conspiracy theorists out there, here’s an idea on what’s behind Jose’s meltdown.
Jose was clearly already unhappy coming into the season because of the lack of money available for players, felt let down by Roman and wanted out. From the opening day he has been trying to get the sack by making outrageous complaints after each and every game; deliberately alienating his players and staff by publicly humiliating them; very deliberately goading the FA to suspend him by making statements he knew full well would get him in trouble. He has 30 million additional reasons to do this if he’s pissed with Roman’s lack of financial support and wants to move on. Just saying.
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