After over 20 years, I'm always amazed at the new situations I get myself into. The situation: U14 select boys, scramble on the endline with the defender going down awkwardly trying to keep the ball in play. Corner kick called. Defender is still down. I walked over towards the player who is still down. I turned and called for the coach. The player immediately got up and yelled, "I'm OK!" The attacking team took the corner kick, and the defenders scrambled to get into position with their coaches yelling. The keeper saved my ass by catching the corner kick and restarting a counter-attack. Any thoughts on this situation? Or similar experiences?
If you held up or stopped play for the injury, I would think that the injured player needed to leave the field of play. If you did not stop play, I would have considered delaying the taking of the corner to allow the player to compose him/herself for the restart and to ascertain the player's condition before restarting play. Just my thoughts.
It seems to me that when you are on a restart and believe that there is a situation that may interfere with the restart such as this you should call out "wait for my whistle" while you check out the injury just as you do when you are asked for a ceremonial free kick. Jim
It was a defender who appeared injured, then jumped up saying, "I'm OK". Let's think about this a bit. What motive does a defender have for doing this? I can think of: (1) to take a bit of a breather, (2) simulating injury, or (3) delaying the restart. (1) is more-or-less benign. (2) and (3) are more cynical tactics. The ref takes the next step to call the coach out to take care of the player. Defender doesn't want this, because then he'd be subbed out. So he jumps up, miraculously cured. Whatever the reason for the defender remaining down, the effect has been that the attacker's CK has been delayed. Defense has had a chance to regroup. So once he jumps up OK, the attackers restart play, not giving the defense any additional time to set. What's wrong with that? Had the defender not been down at all, play could have restarted even earlier, and no one would have any complaints. The ref had not given any specific instruction to hold the restart. Maybe the ref should have told them to wait when he decided to call the coach onto the field. Or maybe the ref should have asked the down player if he needed assistance before summoning the coach. But without any direction to wait, the attackers have every right to restart play. Defenders should be expected to be alert so they can respond when play resumes.
I think Gary is exactly right in describing what was really happening with the "injured" defender. However, the minute you signaled for the coach to come onto the field you made it clear that you were not ready for the restart. At that point, the players of both teams have a legitimate expectation that you will let them know when you are ready for the restart. To me it is very similar to when referees make the mistake of getting involved with placement of walls without having been asked to do so by the attacking team and without indicating that the restarts will be on whistle. Sooner or later the attacking team fires off a kick while the referee and defenders are preoccupied with the wall.