Leaving the field of play

[J-K]

Midway through the first half on Saturday I heard players on one team saying something about an injured player having gone off. I didn't see anyone go off, I asked the skipper who said his player had gone off injured and that he'd like to bring a player on.

I counted up, they were a player short I mentioned that the player who'd gone off had left without permission so that's a caution.

The problem was that the player had completely gone.

I didn't have anyone to actually caution.

Any tips on what I should/could have done?

 

[SM]

If he was that injured that he left completely (?hospital) , I wouldn't worry about it too much - let the manager know that the correct procedure needs to be followed next time and leave it at that. If you wanted to, you could tell the captain/manager that the player who has gone off is going to receive a caution report (no need to flash a card, just causes confusion) but that would just generate a lot of bad feeling if the guy was genuinely injured.

I am kind of lenient on players leaving the fop for treatment of it seems genuine. Rigid on them coming back on if they don't ask for permission.