The hearing will fix the timetable for the case, and deal with witness statements and disclosure of documents – including texts and emails – by each side, as well as any legal procedural disputes that current exist between the two parties.

A date for a full hearing could be fixed for some time in June but there may be another preliminary hearing arranged before that takes place. The parties may also agree to a settlement before the case is heard.

Chelsea filed their defence in the case last month. Carneiro also has a separate personal legal action against former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who left the club in December, for alleged victimisation and discrimination.

The 42-year-old doctor was dropped from first-team duties after Mourinho criticised her and the first-team physio Jon Fearn for going onto the pitch to treat Eden Hazard on the opening day of the season.

The action meant that Chelsea were temporarily down to nine men against Swansea, and afterwards Mourinho called Carneiro and Fearn ”impulsive and naive”. Carneiro did not appear on the bench again for first-team duties and later parted company with the club.

Mourinho was cleared of using discriminatory language towards her following an investigation by the Football Association. Afterwards, Carneiro and the FA’s independent board member Dame Heather Rabbatts criticised the governing body for not interviewing the doctor as part of its investigation.

Carneiro has also had backing from FIFA’s medical chairman Michel D’Hooghe, who contacted the doctor to offer his support and that of the world governing body. He has backed Carneiro’s insistence that she was simply doing her job.