NOS Football•
The Spanish football team will have to make do without Barcelona striker Lamine Yamal in the final World Cup qualifiers against Georgia (Saturday) and Turkey (Tuesday). The cancellation came after a medical treatment on Monday morning, of which the Spanish federation (RFEF) had not been informed in advance.
The latter went down badly with the irritated RFEF, who understood to her “surprise and dismay” that Barcelona had already planned to have Lamine Yamal undergo treatment from Monday for pubic bone pain that will require seven to ten days of recovery time. The association could therefore have been informed earlier about the winger’s absence.
Injury ‘comes and goes’
At Barcelona, people were upset again because they believed that the 18-year-old star player, who was present in the 4-2 league match against Celta de Vigo on Sunday, should not have been selected at all, because the injury in question “comes and goes, but does not allow him to play at his best”.
Barcelona refers to Nico Williams. The Athletic Club winger trained with his club on Friday and Saturday, played 72 minutes against Real Oviedo on Sunday, scored the only goal of the match, but was left out of the Spanish selection.
Lamine Yamal suffered the injury in the groin area while playing for Spain in September. “He left with complaints and returned with pain,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick responded at the time. “The national team gave him painkillers and yet he played 79 minutes in the first match and 73 minutes in the second. This is not good for the players.”
