No-one was near the centre-back when he twisted in his penalty area, but the air was filled moments later with screams as he crumpled, stomach down on the ground, with his leg at an unhealthy angle.
Only eight minutes had been played on a sunny afternoon in Sittingbourne, but it was apparent pretty quickly that the injury was serious.The player was moaning in agony on the ground and it would have been foolish to try moving him the 10 yards needed to get him off the ground so that play could resume.
One of the south London away side's players called the ambulance from the pitch on a mobile. The advice from ambulance central was clear. Cover him up but don't move him. In fact the players did move him, turning him on to his back to try to ease his pain.
The overall delay was less than 40 minutes and the ambulance trundled onto the pitch after 20 minutes or so, gently easing the youngster onto a stretcher and taking him off to hospital in Gillingham with what looked like ligament injuries.
It's very tricky to know whether to ask some colleagues to carry a player injured like this to the side of the pitch, but it's best to err on the side of the caution.
Light is often a major consideration with such incidents, but happily the days are getting longer now and this wasn't an issue, especially on such a sunny day.
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