Lamine Yamal knee injury has ruled the Barcelona star out of Spain’s Nations League trip to Czechia on Thursday, but head coach Luis de la Fuente insists the 19-year-old will be back in time for Sunday’s top-of-the-table clash with England.
Yamal reported discomfort in his right knee after playing the full 90 minutes of Barcelona’s 2-1 win at Atletico Madrid on Sunday, a game in which he set up Fermin Lopez’s 66th-minute winner. Scans in Barcelona found inflammation and fluid in the joint, and the Spanish federation said on Monday that the winger would stay in Catalonia for treatment rather than travel to Prague with the squad.
Lamine Yamal knee injury sparks ‘special privileges’ row
De la Fuente, speaking at his pre-match press conference in Prague on Wednesday, hit back at suggestions that Yamal had been given preferential treatment by being allowed to join the camp late. “Lamine doesn’t have any special privileges. We would have done this for any other player,” the Spain coach said. “Our medical staff assessed him, and I decided that, to avoid the trip, it would be better for him to stay home for treatment with his club.”
The coach added that Yamal’s recovery was going well and he expected the teenager to link up with the squad on Friday. De la Fuente also told Spanish news agency EFE that the discomfort was minor and Yamal could even have played in Prague. The problem, he said, dates back to the Champions League win over Aston Villa on 3 November, which left “a small inflammation” in the knee.
Yamal expected back for England showdown
Spain have already sealed a place in the Nations League quarter-finals with 12 points from four games, but Sunday’s meeting with England at the Metropolitano will decide who finishes top of the group — and with it, home advantage in the second leg of the quarter-final. England sit second on nine points, and a fit Yamal would give De la Fuente his strongest hand for the biggest game of the group.
Mikel Oyarzabal will also miss the Czechia trip after a bout of flu, with both players expected to report to camp in the coming days. It is the second high-profile Nations League withdrawal of the week after Kylian Mbappe was ruled out of France’s trip to Italy with a hamstring problem.
Why the row started
The debate around Yamal’s delayed arrival has split opinion in Spain. Radio MARCA journalist David Sanchez argued the reaction says more about Barcelona’s place in Spanish football than the player’s circumstances, claiming that if a row breaks out around Yamal, “it’s not because he’s the best player in the squad; it’s, quite simply, because Lamine Yamal plays for Barcelona.”
For De la Fuente, though, the message was simple: no player gets special treatment, and no unnecessary risks will be taken with a 19-year-old carrying a knee problem. With qualification already secured, Spain can afford to be cautious in Prague — but they will want their star winger back for England on Sunday. For more on this weekend’s international action, check today’s predictions.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0, Bryan Berlin) — collage by SportsBuddy
