No settlement between Chelsea and Carneiro

Former Chelsea team doctor Eva Carneiro has appeared at a tribunal hearing for her constructive dismissal case against the Premier League champions.

The preliminary hearing took place at the London South Employment Tribunal in Croydon yesterday and was held in private before an employment judge.

Carneiro arrived at court holding hands with her husband, Jason De Carteret, and surrounded by her legal team, and made no comment to the waiting members of the press as she entered and later left the building.

After the three-hour hearing, Mary O’Rourke QC, representing Carneiro, said no settlement had been reached and a date had been fixed for the next hearing.

A court spokesman refused to reveal exactly when that would be.

“It was a private hearing and what happened in the hearing is a private matter,” he said.

The 42-year-old doctor was dropped from first-team duties after then-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho criticised her and first-team physio Jon Fearn for going on to the pitch to treat Eden Hazard on the opening day of the season.

The action meant that Chelsea were temporarily down to nine men against Swansea, and afterwards Mourinho called Carneiro and Fearn “impulsive and naive”.

Carneiro did not appear on the bench again for first-team duties and later parted company with the club.

The hearing was expected to set the timetable for the case, and deal with witness statements and disclosure of documents — including texts and emails — from each side, as well as any legal procedural disputes which currently exist between the two parties.