12 year old friendships

[Whopperwhippet]

Hello,
I am looking for reassurance from parents that have been through this and come out the other side.
My son has moved up to secondary school and his primary school friendships have shifted. I expected this, but it feels much worse than i thought it would. My son is often left out by his old group. Sometimes they still play together but other times my son is completely blanked.
They tend to have quite informal meet ups- parents no longer arrange "play dates" and he doesnt want me to do this.
He has made new friends, but none are quite solid enough to replace his primary friendships yet.
He has hardly seen a friend all summer, and i am worried about his social confidence. His closest friend has totally dropped him and i am worried new friends will take sides (as they all play sport together).
I guess i just want reassurance that he will find his group and this will all settle :( i am feeling very sad and helpless tonight- though of course just trying to keep him busy and reassure him this is all normal.

My DC2 quickly changed friendship groups and then they shifted again. He’s only in Y7, he does have plenty of time for this to settle. Keep encouraging him to do things out of school other than his sport and he should start to find one or two people he can rely on.

I’d also talk to him about it not necessarily being the ones like himself. I already knew my BF before High School but I wouldn’t say we were friends. I started talking to her at School and we soon hit it off. She was very quiet and quiet shy, total opposite of me but we’ve been close friends for years now.