Spain NT director clears the air on Barcelona prodigy’s injury handling – ‘There has been transparency’ | OneFootball

Lamine Yamal being called up by the Spanish national team for the ongoing international break was scandalous enough, especially given that he just seemingly recovered from a major injury blow.

The player eventually withdrew from the list after suffering a relapse, and playing for the national team even if he had been fit would not have had great consequences.

Lamine had been dealing with pubic discomfort last month, which was exacerbated after he played two games in a space of a few days for Spain.

It led to him missing four matches for Barcelona, with Hansi Flick criticising Spain boss Luis de la Fuente over how he handled the youngster’s fitness and injury. After all, it emerged that the winger was given a painkiller injection to play against Turkey.

La Roja director speaks

Speaking to the media, the technical director of the Spanish national team, Aitor Karanka, addressed the recent feud between La Roja and Barcelona over the federation making Lamine play for the national team through pain despite knowing of his pubalgia.

Karanka began by clarifying that there was complete transparency from the side of the national team and that communication was very clear from the beginning.

“We settle the issue once and for all with the premises of the Federation that are maximum transparency, collaboration and care of the player,” said Karanka.

Lamine suffered a relapse of his pubic discomfort. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images for Qatar Airways)

“Since I came here and La Liga began, there is communication with the clubs, care for the player and transparency that is required in a place like this,” he added.

Karanka then denied the fact that any injections were administered to Yamal to alleviate the pain that reportedly made him feature for Spain despite nursing a setback. He even admitted that Deco was aware of the situation,

“I haven’t heard Deco talk about infiltrations, and I’ve talked to Deco several times. He has said it on two or three occasions.”

The RFEF technical director then emphasised how communication between the federation and the club was of paramount importance and how the medical teams had to work in tandem to ensure the player’s interest was prioritised.

“The Federation held an event two weeks ago, and I went out to speak. There has been transparency, and we talked about it because we thought that after all the work done with the clubs over several weeks, it was time to explain what had happened,” he said.

“The idea is that the clubs, the sports management, and the medical services are all connected so that these things happen as little as possible, and having learned from this, everything will go much better,” he added.

Source: Mundo Deportivo