Jose Mourinho's treatment of Chelsea first-team doctor Eva Carneiro has been described as "appalling" by former head of Liverpool's sports medicine department Peter Brukner.
Mourinho criticised Carneiro and physio Jon Fearn after they came on the pitch to treat Eden Hazard in stoppage time during Saturday's 2-2 draw with Swansea, saying the pair should have appreciated that the Belgian midfielder was not in need of medical attention.
Sources subsequently told ESPN FC that Carneiro, who had thanked the public for their support in the wake of the criticism, would be given a reduced role at the club in which she would no longer attend matches.
Brukner, who left Liverpool in 2012 and now works as team doctor for the Australian cricket team, said the medics had done nothing wrong.
"I thought it was appalling behaviour by the manager," Brukner told talkSPORT. "The medical staff deserve a public apology, and I'm very disappointed the club hasn't come out and done something to support them -- they were just doing their job.
"Our first priority as doctors and physio is the health and safety of the individual player and that's what they were attending to. They were doing their job and they've been criticised very publicly."
Mourinho, who had seen goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois sent off earlier in the game, had said Carneiro and Fearn were "impulsive and naive" and showed a lack of understanding of the game after leaving the team with just nine players while Hazard received treatment.
However, Brukner added: "He [Mourinho] has a player [Hazard] who has gone down, has remained down and the referee considered it serious enough to summon the doctor and physio. They went on as they must do, and as a result the player had to come off the field.
"What do you expect the doctor to do, just ignore the referee beckoning them on? They were only responding to the referee's instruction to come and a treat the player, so to criticise the medical staff publicly in the way that he did was absolutely appalling behaviour."
Carneiro joined Chelsea in February 2009, having previously worked at the British Olympic Medical Institute and with England Women's Football and UK Athletics.
The doctor thanked people for their support on Sunday, posting on Facebook: "I would like to thank the general public for their overwhelming support. Really very much appreciated."
That status attracted in excess of 22,000 likes and on Tuesday it emerged Carneiro's role was changing, albeit while keeping the title as Chelsea's first-team doctor.
When approached by Press Association Sport on the issue, a club spokesman said: "We do not comment on internal staffing matters."
Information from the Press Association was used in this report.