"Witch doctors" comment - is it defamatory?

[injuryupdate]

It was reported in the weekend that Everton's manager David Moyes was quoted as saying "Tim Cahill will be back when we say he is fit and ready and not when the witch doctors in Australia say he is", in reference to the Socceroos medical team.

Obviously a typical club v country debate about player fitness except that:

- this is the World Cup we are talking about, not a friendly against Albania.
- there seems to be no reason why Moyes can be justified in calling the socceroos medical team 'witch doctors'. It is not as if the guy has torn his ACL and needs surgery and the advice from Australia is to ignore it. From all reports he has a partial PCL and the treatment is rest and physio.

I would be filthy if I was on the Socceroos medical team, given that sports med qualifications are much better in Australian than the UK. And given that managers in the UK are on huge coin, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets asked to withdraw and apologise for the comments, or else.

[Unregistered]

Yes it is defamatory but nothing new for managers of struggling English football teams attempting to save their jobs and control their best players! Would he have been as brave to make such comments if any of his English players had been good enough to make the English squad? Yeah right!
Watching the vision you can see the mechanism of injury is inconsistent with a PCL. As they do however the physio probably ordered an MRi immediately and made the diagnosis from this. He was then sent for an opinion from an orthopaedic surgeon who specializes in hip replacements and revisions. Say no more!
Evidence of the paradox in Moyes comments is the fact that Tottenham's best choice for recent appointment as club doctor was a 3rd year registrar of the Australian College of Sports Physician.
My theory is english managers have for years stifled the development of specialist football doctors out of avoidance of any threat or questionning to their authority from anyone with an ounce of knowledge or intelligence. The health system doesn't help either. Another reason to support specialist recognition for Sports Physicians in Australia.