The international break has already kicked off, and FC Barcelona see some of their best players participating in it. While it is true that certain players have also been left behind, the truth is that many of the team’s starters are currently away. Moreover, Barcelona remain worried about the health of those players constantly.
In recent times, injuries to the likes of Ronald Araujo, Gavi, and most recently Fermin Lopez, have shown the downsides of entrusting players to their national teams. With these injuries come longer consequences for the club’s long-term seasonal objectives and more.
However, despite these warning signs and an already exhaustive football calendar having been set up, some countries fail to take things into consideration and continue to overexert the various superstars at their disposal. This is even more worrying when it comes to youngsters.
As highlighted by Mundo Deportivo, perhaps the most worrying case could be that of 17-year-old Lamine Yamal. Despite already being a starter at the club level at his age, the young Barcelona star is also a fundamental piece of Luis de la Fuente’s Spanish team which recently won the European Championship as well.
However, in their latest UEFA Nations League game against Serbia, the only forward who was kept on for the entirety of the game was young Lamine Yamal. In a game that ultimately ended 0-0 by the final whistle, all the starting forwards had been substituted except for the Barcelona prodigy.
Ayoze Perez, Nico Williams, and Barcelona star Dani Olmo all started the game with Yamal by their side. By the end of the game, however, the youngster was surrounded by Ferran Torres, Mikel Oryazabal, and Joselu. It becomes even more worrying when it is taken into consideration that Yamal is the youngest of the starting forwards by a distance, with 22-year-old Nico Williams having been the second-youngest.
Ultimately, the UEFA Nations League has previously come under fire as a competition that essentially holds little international recognition but demands a lot from players during the middle of specific seasons.
However, while the arguments regarding the competition will come and go, De la Fuente’s excessive use of Lamine Yamal will certainly not go unforgiving if something bad happens. He already got a lot of criticism for starting Gavi in an inconsequential game that resulted in his ACL injury, and it seems that he has not learned from his mistakes.
