Lamine Yamal, a Barcelona youngster, was named to the Spanish squad briefly on Friday, but was withdrawn a few hours later when his groin injury re-escalated. It is estimated that the 18-year-old forward will be out up to three weeks, meaning that he can not play in Barcelona in LaLiga at Sevilla this weekend and in World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Bulgaria in Spain.
The timing is tough for Barça. They have Girona and Olympiacos at home after the international break and on October 26, they go to Madrid to have the first Clasico of the season. Yamal now is in a race to be in shape to play that match.
Barcelo admitted the defeat in an announcement: The pain in the pubic region which has been plaguing the player, Lamine Yamal, has started showing up again after the PSG match. He is out of the Sevilla game, and is expected to need 2-3 weeks to recover.
Lamine Yamal has only recently come back to train following injury in the previous weekend when he entered the field off the bench against Real Sociedad before playing a full 90 minutes at the midweek defeat to PSG. His appointment to Spain was interpreted as a recovery step though the most recent news has compelled coach Luis de la Fuente to make some changes.
The greatest omission in the Spanish call-up was Alvarado Morata. The former striker, who has gone on loan to Como, AC Milan, has not been scoring in Italy this season despite putting in seven appearances. Nico Williams of Athletic Club is also injured and so is Dani Carvajal, Gavi and Fermin Lopez.
Instead, Marcos Llorente, Pablo Barrios, Alex Baena, Yeremy Pino and Samu Aghehowa revert to the national set-up.
Spain top their group qualifying with a 100 percent record. A win over Georgia (Oct. 11) and Bulgaria (Oct. 14) would virtually -punch their ticket into the World Cup 2026, should Turkey slip.
The call-up drama is only weeks after Barcelona coach Hansi Flick denounced Spain of overworking Lamine Yamal. Flick alleged that pain killers were administered to the teenager to play on behalf of Spain even though he had not been fully trained. De la Fuente, though, denied the existence of any dispute, and said: There is no conflict with Hansi, not at all. I was simply shocked with what he said.
Barca sporting director Deco has since talked to the Spanish federation to enhance communication in terms of player workloads in the future.
Spain team to play qualifiers in October
- Goalkeepers: Unai Simón, David Raya, Álex Remiro
- Defenders: Alejandro Grimaldo, Marc Cucurella, Pau Cubarsí, Dani Vivian, Robin Le Normand, Marcos Llorente, Pedro Porro, Dean Huijsen
- Midfielders: Rodri, Dani Olmo, Mikel Merino, Martín Zubimendi, Aleix García, Pedri, Álex Baena, Pablo Barrios
- Attackers: Mikel Oyarzabal, Ferran Torres, Yeremy Pino, Lamine Yamal, Samu Aghehowa, Jorge de Frutos, Jesús Rodriguez
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