FORMER Chelsea football club doctor Eva Carneiro has said that working in a Glasgow Accident and Emergency ward prepared her for life in the upper echelons of the English Premier League.
The sports medic, who left the club following a bust-up with then manager Jose Mourinho, has revealed she cut her professional teeth working in the busy A & E of a hospital in Scotland's biggest city, and said that it helped her develop skills she later used to cope with the pressurised world of top-class football.
Ms Caneiro resigned from her post at the London football club in 2015 following an onfield incident which effectively led to her being demoted.
Read more: A&E waiting times improve at Glasgow super-hospital after worst-ever week
She later took to the club to an industrial tribunal and settled out of court for an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the region of £5 million.
In her first interview since the end of the case last year, she said that working in Glasgow had been an "experience", and told of facing abuse from patients who were drunk or on drugs.
She said: "As a doctor, I've worked in very hostile environments. Working in Glasgow A & E was an experience; you see heroin addicts and people under the influence of alcohol and you do get abused and you do develop a very thick skin, and you're not horrified by what may be said or done very easily."
Born in Gibraltar, Ms Carneiro, 43, studied medicine at Nottingham University and worked in Glasgow before passing her surgical exams.
She later completed a postgraduate qualification in sports medicine in Australia, and worked with West Ham FC and the British Olympic team in Beijing before joining Chelsea.
Read more: A&E waiting times improve at Glasgow super-hospital after worst-ever week
Ms Carneiro, who received fan mail from girls asking how to get into her profession, said that she was sometimes subjected to chants from rival fans while working on the sidelines of Premier League matches.
In an interview with Vogue magazine, she said: "It isn't banter, it's abuse. And young girls of an age where they don't have the confidence to be able to handle that shouldn't witness females being abused purely for being females. I find that unacceptable."
She resigned from the club following an incident in August 2015 when she and her team were called on by the referee to treat a player in the pitch.
Manager Mourinho reacted furiously as he realised this would mean the player would have to be treated on the sidelines, putting Chelsea at a numerical disadvantage, and four days later Carneiro was banned from attending training sessions and informed she would no longer be the matchday doctor.
After settling the case, Chelsea released a statement apologising "unreservedly" for her treatment. She is now in the process of setting up a private sports medicine clinic in London.
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