Injured Yamal out of Spain’s World Cup 2026 qualifiers, could miss Clasico
Lamine Yamal has been ruled out of Spain’s World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Bulgaria this month after suffering a recurrence of his groin injury, says Barcelona.
The 18-year-old winger is expected to be sidelined for up to three weeks after the problem resurfaced following Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, the La Liga club said in a statement on Friday.
“The groin problem for Lamine Yamal has returned following the game against PSG. The player will miss [Sunday’s] game against Sevilla and his recovery time is estimated at 2-3 weeks,” Barcelona said.
The timing is particularly cruel for Yamal, who had just returned from his previous three-week layoff to help Barcelona beat Real Sociedad last weekend before playing the full 90 minutes against PSG.
Yamal made his first start in that match since August after missing four games while recovering from a groin injury, which drew the ire of Barcelona coach Hansi Flick, who felt it was made worse by playing in September’s World Cup qualifiers.
Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said earlier on Friday he had no issue with Flick after his criticism of the national team’s handling of the teenager.
“There is no conflict with Flick. I was simply surprised by those statements because he has been a national team coach, and I thought he had that empathy,” de la Fuente said after announcing his squad for the upcoming qualifiers.
“You know we have two very important matches; we are playing for the World Cup. It seems like they’re in the background, and we’re talking about Flick.
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