Mourinho 'Undermined' By Row  (Sky Sports)

Jose Mourinho has been “undermined” by the fall-out from the Eva Carneiro row, according to former Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino.

The Chelsea manager has found himself at the centre of an early-season storm following the decision to ban club doctor Carneiro from sitting on the bench on matchdays after expressing his fury with her for running onto the pitch to treat Eden Hazard in the closing stages of their disappointing 2-2 draw with Swansea at Stamford Bridge last weekend.

It is understood Gibraltar-born Carneiro will continue in her role as first-team doctor, but she will only work at the club's training ground in Cobham, Surrey.

Mourinho actions have been labelled “unjust in the extreme” by the Premier League Doctors' Group, which also accused the Portuguese of putting results ahead of player safety. Carneiro, meanwhile, has taken to social media to "thank the general public for their overwhelming support".

Cascarino, who played for Chelsea between 1992 and 1994, says that while he can understand Carneiro’s desire to run on to attend to the injured Hazard, the ongoing controversy has served to undermine Mourinho’s authority as the manager.

“There was a bit of frustration there with Jose where he wanted Hazard up as quick as they could,” Cascarino told Sky Sports News HQ.

“They were down to 10 men and hanging on for dear life. They really were against Swansea, who played brilliantly in the game. The frustration comes from the manager. He wanted Eden up as quick as he could. He is the manager and he’s been undermined as well. Some of the comments that have come out and happened have made him undermined.

“Physios care about players – some of them don’t care about the result so much, they just care about their players. We don’t know how badly some players are injured. Take the Cech incident when he got badly injured [against Reading in 2006] – you don’t know until a physio gets on.

“I can understand from her perspective, but some of the things that have happened Jose would feel undermined. There’s certainly a broken relationship there which you cannot have in a football club.”

With the defending champions’ failure to beat Swansea at home on the opening day of the new Premier League season coming on the back of several defeats in pre-season, Cascarino believes frustrations are building up for Mourinho.

“Look, pre-season has been difficult,” he added.

“They haven’t won a game in 90 minutes, transfer targets have not been reached – they have tried to get John Stones. The continued injury of Costa has been a problem. There are a lot of different things with Chelsea that have not gone the way Mourinho would have expected.”