Abby Wambach and Glennon Doyle Shout-Out Other Parents of Athletes After Daughter Is Injured on Soccer Field

It’s one thing to be married to a soccer player—but quite another to be the mom of one, at least when they get hurt on the field.

That was Glennon Doyle’s relatable parenting take on Tuesday, when she and “We Can Do Hard Things” podcast co-hosts Amanda Doyle and Abby Wambach shared an upsetting story about their youngest, daughter Amma, who is midway through her senior year of high school and a star player on her school’s soccer team.

During Monday’s game, Amma went down after a rough play and didn’t move for several minutes, and stepmom Wambach, who had been away from the field but summoned by Glennon, ran to her side to assess the situation.

“Amma says, ‘I broke my collarbone, I heard it crack. Everybody heard it crack, the refs heard it crack,’” said Wambach. “She was very upset and very in pain.” A trip to the doctor confirmed she’d broken the bone.

Watching it happen in front of her eyes, says Glennon, was excruciating—both bringing out her anger toward the player who had been rough, and forcing her to go against her deepest motherly instincts.

“It feels like it’s been my job to protect this kid forever,” she said. “And now suddenly, during these two hours, I’m supposed to convince my body that it’s okay.” That, she admitted, “feels out of control. Which scares the crap out of me.”

Said Wambach, whose experience with the game keeps her more centered, “Glennon gets very animated in protection of Amma. There’s something like this motherhood animalistic-ness that comes over her, and so I get it.”

Amanda elaborated on her sister’s discomfort with the brutal reality of watching your kid play a sport. “What you’re saying is we have to suspend reality,” she said. “Like if someone attacks my child in any other context, other than this socially sanctioned context, yes, I’m supposed to be really upset. But in this one I’m supposed to be really cool about it and be like, ‘things happen.’ So that’s so strange to me… If a kid tackles and breaks a bone of a kid unprovoked on the street, there’s going to be charges. If it’s in a game, we are all supposed to say, ‘Well, we signed up for this.’”

Added Glennon: “I feel like people should not break my child’s bones and that, I feel, should be a mountain I can die on. But no, it’s not. It’s a sad thing to watch your kid be in pain. It really is.”

Amma, who has committed to a college where she’ll be a D-1 athlete next year, is now out of the sport for eight weeks. And while “she’s gonna be okay,” said Wambach, the injury had the family shook.

“I shout out to the parents who have kids in sports,” said Glennon. “It’s awful, is what it is.”

Wambach concurred: “It’s awful.”