Magdalena Eriksson admits 'shock' at Emma Hayes' comments on team-mate relationships... as the ex-Chelsea star - who is dating fellow former Blue Pernille Harder - explains her 'problem' with her previous manager's words

Former Chelsea star Magdalena Eriksson has admitted she was left 'shocked' by Chelsea manager Emma Hayes' comments on team-mate relationships.

Hayes raised eyebrows when she said it was 'inappropriate' for players from the same team to be in a relationship, despite past and present members of her Blues squad being partners.

They included defender Jess Carter, who liked a string of social media posts criticising her boss - and is in a relationship with team-mate Ann-Katrin Berger - before Hayes somewhat backtracked on her words in the aftermath.

Eriksson, meanwhile, is in a long-term relationship with Pernille Harder, with the pair originally meeting at Linkopings in Sweden before joining Chelsea and then Bayern Munich in the summer.

As one half of the poster couple for same-sex relationships in women's football, Eriksson has now spoken out against her former manager, saying the scenario was 'blown way out of proportion' despite Hayes trying to explain what she said.

'Well I was shocked because in my view when I was at Chelsea, when Pernille and I played together, there was no problem [with Hayes],' Eriksson said. 'We had a good dialogue with each other.

'I also heard that afterwards, she didn't retract it but she tried to explain the context. What I thought was the problem, it was compared to relationships between coaches and players. I think that's something completely different. Maybe it was unfortunate that it was a comparison of relationships between player and player, and player and coach. It's completely different things.'

'It's like everything in football, it's an individual thing. You can have problems with an individual in a team. It's not so much about whether you have a partner in the team, it's more about how professional you are, and your attitude. I think that's the important thing.'

'I've played in many teams where players have had partners in the teams and they have handled it very professionally. I think it was blown way out of proportion. I've never had any problems with Emma.'

When asked about player-to-player relationships in a press conference last month, Hayes said that they came with 'some challenges'.

'I think player-coach relationships are inappropriate, player-to-player relationships are inappropriate,' the 47-year-old said.

'But we have to look at it in the context of where the game has come from and say we're in a professional era now where the expectations in place for players and coaches is such that all of our focus and attention has got to be on having the top standards.

'And that's why I've always been an advocate of making sure clubs have minimum standards, whether it's code of conduct, player safeguarding, whether it's player welfare.'

She later tried to explain her words, claiming she 'let herself down' despite not quite going back on her opinion. 

'They know exactly who I am and they know exactly what my intentions were,' Hayes said of her words a few days later. 'But I have to expect that I'm supposed to be the most well-trained, non-clickbait headline coach and I let myself down yesterday.

'I didn't think it was right for me to use the term inappropriate for the players. Nonetheless, when we have honest conversations about these things I don't take those things back but I have zero criticism of any player in my dressing room for anything.'