Abuse from the physio

[FightOrFlight]

Was doing a game this weekend. It was a friendly but was a high enough standard of U20s. A player makes a tackle and gets his head around the wrong area of the hip and cops a fair shot from the ball carriers "hip bone". He goes down and arms are straight up and his leg is twitching. I blow it up at once and call for medical staff(as it was a 20s 1s game there were trained medical staff/physios with both teams).

His physio/medicine man comes on and before he sees to the player says "C'mon look at him sir, that has to be foul play" I ignored him and took some water that was handed to me and he went to attend to the player. Minute or so he gets up and says "You're a f**king disgrace sir he could have been killed" and he points a very jabby finger at the ball carrier who was a little shaken by what had happened and said "you're scum...one of our lads will take care of you dont worry".
I must admit I was a little caught out by this...even the injured player's team seemed so and nobody out of them had appealed for anything. The immediate issue at this point however was that the "tackler's" pack were in a huddle well within earshot of the physio and their reaction to his threat to their player was such that I was immediately concerned for his safety as a few of them looked like they were about to dispense him a savage beating.

I called the physio aside and told him that he was to remove himself from the playing enclosure and if he returned I would stop the game until he had left again. He was not happy and F'ed and blinded a bit more until the head coach of his team and another coach came on and escorted him off apologising to me as they did so.
I turned to check on the injured player who had been totally forgotten by everyone and saw that he was up on his feet but was being replaced.

I called in the 2 captains and said to them "look we have had a little bit of a high octane situation there, I don't know why but it's been a very clean game and it should stay as such" Physio's captain apologised and said he had no idea what had happened and that it was just a knock in a tackle.

As I was about to restart play the head coach called on to me and jogged on he said "Look sir no issues with sending him away but we have no trained physio now so if there is a serious injury who will tend to it?"
My reply was that if it is a serious injury requiring emergency attention, without doubt the opposition medical staff would offer assistance but physios were not always present at these games and it was rarely an issue. However I informed him that if he felt it was a player welfare issue we could abandon the game. He said he did not want to go that far and we played on.

Good game in a good spirit bar that part.

Question is what would you do if they insisted they needed a physio but the physio has acted as such....I mean had he come back on there is a good chance he'd have got into agro with the opposition!

 

[Phil E]

Abandon the game and report the physio (or lack of) as the cause.
Name names, and words used.

Totally out of order and exceeding his remit.

 

[matty1194]

If a physio had said that to me in a game rather than deal with his "injured" player and had issued threats to the opposition player involved he would of been told in no uncertain terms to bugger off.

Both coaches would of been informed with their captains of the decision to get rid of said physio and that following the game he would be reported to HQ with all relevent sanctions to follow.

As per your last comment, if the team had said they required that physio then I would have no choice but to abandon the game due to the fact the physio had been dismissed from the game.

 

[crossref]

Fightorflight sounds like you kept your cool handled a very unusual and surprising event perfectly...

 

[Pegleg]

I think you handled the game very well. Phil makes a very valid point. The option to abandon is always there for you. YOU ARE THE SOLE JUDGE etc. If you are not happy then it is "game over".

The lack of a physio is neither your fault nor problem it is the fault of the physio and the problem of his team. I would imagine the other team's physio would naturally act. However be ready to deal if not. I'd have considered speaking to the remaining physio and his side's coach just to put them fully in the picture and to ask for their confirmation of preparedness to help if needed. As said I can't imagine refusal. However, courtesy suggest this to be appropriate.

I trust a "code of conduct" report is on its way to your union's disciplinary people. Don't accept an apology. the physio must be dealt with.

 

[Ronald]

Agree with sentiments above, think you handled it very well! Very important is to report him, we sit with issues down here in South Africa because we as refs don't report physios and coaches doing this sort of thing.
Quick aside, down here at every game we ref we need medics before we can start. Even if both teams have their own physio, I am not allowed to start until medics and a spine board is next to the field. It is the responsibility of the home team to organise these medics, and if they don't, a league game will be forfeited with points to the opposition.

 

[FlipFlop]

Think you handled it correctly. Over here, it would be a Red Card shown, but I know that not all countries allow that.

Definitely fill in an abuse form or similar, and report them.