COLUMN: Luis de la Fuente, painkillers, and the most dangerous campaign in Spain | OneFootball

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Injury after injury, the Spanish gaffer has demonstrated he refuses to let players go: Lamine Yamal is his latest victim. Reports assured that Lamine Yamal played with painkillers during the last international break, which later led to his injury relapse as he was still recovering. There seems to be no end to his unintentional cruelty, as Luis de la Fuente sees nothing wrong with his choices. This is not a first: Gavi suffered a similar case last year, against Georgia. These incredible scenes beg the following questions: when will this come to an end, and can clubs take any action?

You might have heard it: Barcelona and de La Fuente are at war again. A year ago, de la Fuente thought it was his right to use players as mannequins, which led one year absence from football pitches for Gavi. Instead of admitting his mistake, de la Fuente doubled down, claiming that Barcelona (at the time, under Xavi Hernandez) were responsible for overplaying the teenager.

In this regard, de la Fuente is not entirely wrong: clubs play and manage players’ workloads all season, and Gavi was indeed one of the most used players under Xavi. Why shouldn’t he request a similar handling of his players? After all, the player represents both teams. Where de la Fuente lacks empathy is in the constant self-victimising rhetoric he has engaged in for years.

De la Fuente claims he has the right to play, yet will act surprised if players are injured while he endangers their well-being as they play with painkillers under his (misguided) guidance. Once Lamine Yamal was injured, Barcelona gaffer Hansi Flick publicly expressed his frustration, claiming that “Spain did not look after Lamine Yamal properly.” Where most would have admitted fault for playing teenagers on painkillers, de la Fuente attacked Flick, claiming that “I thought he would have more empathy.”

What empathy is expected from the same manager who provoked life-long injury scars for an entire generation? Before managing La Roja, de la Fuente was Spain’s coach at the 2020 Olympics. He saw no issue in using players who represented Spain at the Euros earlier that summer, fully aware that many of them had also played through the entire season at club level too. The result? Mike Oyarzabal, Gavi, Pedri, and Dani Olmo all struggled (some of them still do) with their fitness as a result.

De la Fuente says that his team is disputing “two important games” for the World Cup. Yet Spain won the first two matches of the qualifiers, totalling nine goals over two encounters and are yet to concede a goal. These are not heavyweight matches against France or Germany, major tests that may influence his thinking long-term, but instead his opponents are Georgia, Turkey, and Bulgaria. This is without adding that Spain’s squad, in many positions, is stacked with quality throughout, but particularly in midfield. When it comes to Lamine Yamal, one can argue that there is no similar profile. However, when it comes to Gavi or Pedri, the argument is non-existent.

If de la Fuente had an ounce of common sense, he would not ask teenagers to play meaningless games. When Gavi suffered his injury against Georgia in 2023, he had just seen 90 minutes of action against Cyprus in a qualifying group La Roja had already topped, making it seven starts out of eight for the 19-year-old. Having witnessed several instances of tragic injuries, the Spain manager has not learn his lesson, but instead opted to crash into a wall – without a helmet. One wonders what Lamine Yamal really thinks of taking painkillers in order to cruise to victory over Bulgaria, or whether a more experienced player might have questioned doing so? At the very least, his approach can be described as selfish. De la Fuente will never face any consequences for endangering the careers of players, many of who are teenagers in this case, because there are no real repercussions.

In any workplace, the employees’ well-being and health comes first, before any type of work. At least, this is the case in Spain and in the European Union. Football however does not seem to obey such rules; players’ trade unions insist at every opportunity that their members play too many games, but their outcry never fails to get lost in the wind. Most are fully aware that the responsibility lies with institutions, whether it’s UEFA or FIFA, to put in place firm regulations. Hence it is fair to argue that individual managers, club or international, are not decisive. However, it should not allow de la Fuente to escape criticism, and to do so is to attribute an insulting naivety to a European champion. When it comes to younger players with potential to be at the top of the game for a decade, the point of discussion is sharper, the consequnces of his actions carrying even more weight.

Lamine Yamal’s groin issues continue. Image via EFE

The chances are that Barcelona, in this case, or others clubs, will soon start to retaliate. Paris Saint-Germain have already threatened to do so after finding themselves without Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele after the last international break. The French giants complained of ‘unilateralism’ and a ‘lack of transparency’ that sound familiar, given the vastly differing scenes Flick and de la Fuente have painted.

When parents temporarily loan their children to the kindergarten, they expect them to come back in one piece. Not with scars, and certainly not on multiple occasions. Yet this is what de la Fuente has given clubs in reward for their trust, in little better state than some of their players. For now, the trust between Barcelona and de La Fuente won’t improve anytime soon. As far as dramatics will allow, the declarations of war have been made, and the battle lies drawn. It seems a battle is the only way make de la Fuente retreat, because as things stand, being under his command is arguably the most dangerous campaign in the Iberian Peninsula.