Junior/Youth Injuries to young players - who decides on treatment?

Was doing a school's game and had 2 separate injuries of under 14s players. I asked if they wanted the first aider/treatment each time and they did come on. But given that age are we the ones that make the decision or are they?

My stance on this is slow everything right down.

If you perceive they have a knock or injury at that age. Just walk up to them and talk to them before a restart. Ask them if they're sure they don't need anyone.

Then when they walk off to their position I ask for a quick thumbs up to make sure they are 100% good before whistling the restart.

I'm with ONR. There are the obvious ones that you can decide eaaily. Head knock, bleeding etc, get someone on quick. Or a little knock on the foot in a careless challenge, the player wants to get on with it, a quick "are you ok fella?", yeap. Get on with it.

It's the ones in the middle you need to be careful with, slow it down, look for visual clues, look at the player, look at the bench or team mates, talk to player, ask the manager if you think is a good idea. You decide based one what you think they want you to decide. Obviously also keep gamesmanship in mind.

Related to this, what's the general consensus of enforcing the LOTG regarding leaving the field of play having received "treatment" (though at this age it's rarely treatment and more of a check-up)? I've literally never done it at U13s and below given the age of the players. I do do it at U15s and up though (by quirk I've only ever done a couple of U14s).

The Gump said:

Related to this, what's the general consensus of enforcing the LOTG regarding leaving the field of play having received "treatment" (though at this age it's rarely treatment and more of a check-up)? I've literally never done it at U13s and below given the age of the players. I do do it at U15s and up though (by quirk I've only ever done a couple of U14s).

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Initially, I was going to argue that players under 13 generally don't go down injured to waste time or engage in gamesmanship (though it's not impossible). In most cases, if they’re on the ground, they’re likely hurt and would benefit from treatment. Forcing them to follow a procedure designed to combat time-wasting seems unnecessary and could confuse them, potentially making them feel "punished" without understanding the law—something I don't believe needs to be educated at that age.

I was then conflicted... What if you encounter a player who frequently goes down? They may genuinely be fouled, but the severity of the injury could be questionable. If the same player is going down for the third, fourth, or fifth time in a match, it starts to impact overall match control and raises questions about the consistent application of the Laws of the Game (LOTG).

If you don’t require the player to leave the field after the first incident, would it then be inconsistent to enforce it after the third, fourth, or fifth? Do you start applying it after repeated treatments? Which then brought me to the conclusion that to maintain fairness it needs to be enforced from the beginning - which I still don't agree with!

One thing I’m certain about is that for older age groups, I would enforce the law. Even if they're not intentionally wasting time, they’re nearing open-age football where the law should be applied consistently. It’s also a good opportunity to educate players on the expectations after treatment.

In the U13s I have done (one), I did tell the player who after receiving treatment that ordinarily they'd be asked to leave the field and come back on, but at that age all they want to do is play and it would be - as already stated - a bit of punishment for getting injured. If there is tears then you kind of get the idea that treatment is not going to be offered but taken as granted.

RonnieM said:

In the U13s I have done (one), I did tell the player who after receiving treatment that ordinarily they'd be asked to leave the field and come back on, but at that age all they want to do is play and it would be - as already stated - a bit of punishment for getting injured. If there is tears then you kind of get the idea that treatment is not going to be offered but taken as granted.

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That is a good approach for that age group, letting them know what would happen in older years whilst also letting them play and enjoy thier football which is crucial for that age group.