Chelsea deliver Marc Cucurella message before Spain duty amid ongoing injury problems | OneFootball

Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella has joked about the message that the club gave him before he left for international duty with Spain.

Cucurella is one of the 10 Chelsea first-team players who are currently representing their respective national teams during this international break.

The left back is already with the Spain national team, who are currently preparing for World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Bulgaria.

Like often the case with every national team, there are players who miss out on international duty due to injuries.

There are usually politics involved, with both the clubs and national teams trying to decide what is best for themselves.

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For Spain, Barcelona's Lamine Yamal is one of these cases, and Cucurella highlighted how complex the situation is.

"Yes, I've heard about it," he said in Wednesday's press conference when speaking about Yamal's injury.

"It's difficult, the club wants what's best for him and the national team wants what's best for the national team, but in the end it's the player who's caught in the middle.

"The most important thing is him. He has the final say: whether he can play, whether he's in pain or not. Better communication would avoid a lot of problems."

Hilariously, Cucurella compared it to the simple situation he is in with Chelsea.

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"The only thing they tell me at Chelsea is to come back healthy, and that's it," he joked. "Then they don't talk to me again until I return."

Well, it has been almost two years since Cucurella last missed games due to injury.

He underwent ankle surgery in late 2023 and missed 17 games for Chelsea as a result, but he has not had any significant fitness-related issues since then, fortunately for both the club and Spain.

The communication would likely be different for Reece James, for example, who has a worse injury record and has to manage his workload more carefully.