Betting on Football? Claim £500+ in free bets – click here now.
Reading’s account of events which followed Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech suffering a fractured skull has been backed by the emergency servcies.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho claimed Chelsea waited 30 minutes for the ambulance to take Cech from the ground to the hospital after the keeper’s collision with Stephen Hunt.
However, the ambulance duty officer on the scene, claims it took seven minutes for the ambulance to arrive from the time one was called.
“We support Reading Football Club with their statement of events,” Mark Ainsworth said.
“They are the accurate ones and I’m not sure where the confusion has arisen with Jose Mourinho’s version of events.
“The player (Cech) was taken off the pitch and went down into the players’ dress area as they normally would do, and was under the inspection of the Chelsea doctor there around 20 minutes before he called the paramedics to come and have a further assessment of him.
“It was 20 minutes before the doctor decided to actually get the paramedics to come and inspect him. We wouldn’t routinely send the paramedics to inspect a player, they are under the care of the duty doctor provided by the club.
“The ambulance was called at 17:45 and it arrived at 17:52, so seven minutes from the time that the call came through to the ambulance control until they actually arrived at the scene.
“It left 12 minutes later, that was obviously taking him from the players’ area up to the ambulance and actually leaving the ground area. He was taken in a lift from the players’ dressing room up to where the ambulance was waiting to take him to Royal Berks (hospital).’
Mourinho complained that Cech “could not leave the dressing room properly” and was taken out on a wheelchair and then taken in a lift to the ambulance, but Ainsworth suggested that this was a decision taken by Chelsea’s medical staff.
“We have two options for removing players from the ground, one of those is on a stretcher round the edge of the pitch in front of all the players and then out through the tunnel,’ Ainsworth added.
“That was declined by the Chelsea doctor, he wanted to keep (Cech) out of the public eye, so the other option was to go in a wheelchair, in a lift, up to the waiting ambulance.’
“We’re slightly annoyed that he is bringing us into it all, we did our best for the player following the request of the Chelsea doctor. We took him (to hospital) as quickly as we would take any member of the public to hospital.
“We have been brought into it now but I have got every assurance for him and the rest of the Chelsea team that we did our utmost, as did the rest of the medical team, at the Madejski Stadium for the care of his players.”
Betting on Football? Claim £500+ in free bets – click here now.
