found out from his coach, not him. 16, plays most evenings. his logic: amma will make it a whole thing. i fix ankles for a living 😅 still, he's not wrong. how do you get them to tell you early without every bump turning into a hospital visit
Mine are 10 and 7, so I can only offer an outside view. It sounds as if he isn't hiding the injury from his mother so much as from the orthopaedic surgeon. Is there someone else he could tell first, your partner or the coach, who then decides whether it needs you professionally? That separates the two roles a little.
Two boys here, both play football. Our rule is simple, tell somebody in the house the same day, doesn't matter who. Usually the younger one tells the elder and the elder decides if it reaches me 😊 Not perfect, but nothing sits for a week.
I agree with separating the roles. My daughter is fifteen and plays basketball. What helped with her was a promise in the other direction: she tells me the same day, and I don't stop her playing unless a doctor says so. Before that she assumed telling me meant being benched.
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