Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal has been ruled out of Spain’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Bulgaria after suffering a recurrence of his groin injury, the Catalan club confirmed on Friday.
The 18-year-old, who returned to action in Wednesday’s 2-1 Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, is expected to be sidelined for up to three weeks.
“The pain reappeared after the match with PSG,” Barcelona said. “The estimated recovery time is two to three weeks.”
Spain promptly withdrew Yamal from their squad after initially including him in Luis de la Fuente’s call-up list. His absence also puts his participation in the Clasico against Real Madrid on October 26 in doubt.
Yamal had only just made his first start since August after missing four games with the same problem, prompting frustration from Barcelona coach Hansi Flick, who blamed September’s World Cup qualifiers for aggravating the injury.
De la Fuente, however, downplayed talk of a rift.
“The risk in football always exists. If he plays for his club, he assumes those risks,” the Spain coach said. “There is no conflict with Flick. I was just surprised by his comments because he has also been a national coach.”
Spain, who top Group E with six points from two matches, face Georgia in Elche on October 11 before hosting Bulgaria in Valladolid three days later.
De la Fuente will also be without Nico Williams, Dani Carvajal and Alvaro Morata. Williams has not featured since picking up a groin injury in a 6-0 win over Turkey, while Carvajal is sidelined with a knock. Morata, meanwhile, was omitted after a slow start to the season at Como.
