Luis de la Fuente's Injury Challenges Ahead of World Cup

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente is staring at an injury list that would rattle most managers on the eve of a World Cup. He refuses to blink.

Lamine Yamal, the 18-year-old phenomenon who has lit up Barcelona’s season, has not kicked a ball since a hamstring injury in late April. His club have already ruled him out for the rest of the campaign, a jarring sentence for any Spain supporter who watched him bend games to his will this year. Yet the message from the national team camp is clear: barring a setback, he will be ready when the World Cup curtain rises in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

He is not alone on the treatment table. Athletic Bilbao’s Williams suffered a muscle injury on Sunday, another jolt for De la Fuente’s plans out wide. Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino remains out after breaking his right foot three months ago, a long, lonely road back for a player whose intelligence and balance in midfield have become a quiet cornerstone for Spain.

And still, the coach sounds defiantly calm.

“I think that all the players who have been mentioned will be fit and available for the start of the World Cup and I believe for the first match,” De la Fuente told journalists, drawing a line under the rising anxiety around his squad.

If that optimism proves a touch ambitious, he is already braced for a staggered return.

“If it's not for the first match, it would be for the second or third, and it doesn't cause any major setbacks,” he said, before conceding what every elite coach knows but rarely voices so bluntly: this season has been brutal.

He called it “a very tough year in terms of injuries,” then went further, describing the constant shadow that stalks every training session and every sprint.

“The world of injuries, which is the tragedy of sport, is what truly keeps us under a lot of pressure, especially in this critical phase because injuries that occur from now on, any minor muscular injury, are really difficult to recover from.”

This is the tightrope walk now. Players arrive at a World Cup drained by club demands, yet asked to peak again in the space of weeks. One bad movement in May can end a dream in June.

De la Fuente is trying to build in insurance. Spain will name a 26-man squad for the tournament, the maximum allowed, but the coach confirmed he will call in extra players for a friendly against Iraq on June 4. Those additional names will not only cover the short-term gaps; they will train with the group, breathe the same air, and stand ready if recovery timelines slip.

The calendar will not wait. Spain open their World Cup campaign against Cape Verde on June 15 in Atlanta, a fixture they are expected to control but cannot afford to treat as a warm-up. Uruguay and Saudi Arabia complete a group that offers little margin for error if the favourites start slowly or arrive undercooked.

So the countdown is no longer measured in weeks, but in scan results and training minutes. Yamal’s hamstring, Williams’ muscle strain, Merino’s foot — each one now carries weight far beyond their clubs.

Spain still plan to land in North America with their brightest talents on the pitch, not in the stands. The question is no longer whether De la Fuente believes that. It is whether time, and the fragile bodies of his stars, will let him be right.