Two Barcelona players, Lamine Yamal and Pedri, featured in the game as Spain got a 1-0 victory over Denmark in the UEFA Nations League on Saturday night.
However, the Blaugranes would hardly have celebrated this win as they saw Yamal leave the stadium limping after being tackled several times throughout the game. Fortunately, detailed tests on the youngster showed that he was suffering only from discomfort and not from anything more serious.
Still, as SPORT has noted, the situation of Lamine Yamal would have been concerning for Barcelona as they have already seen three of their players developing serious issues because of their heavy involvement with La Roja in recent times.
The first of these players was Gavi, who also suffered the most serious injury, as he tore his ACL on 19th November, 2023, while playing for Spain in an inconsequential match against Georgia.
This ACL tear was accompanied by an injury to the meniscus, and he had to undergo surgery to recover from this issue. The midfielder has not been able to play since that time but is now getting into the final phases of his recovery.
The second player who suffered a lot due to his high minutes with the Spanish national team was Pedri. The Canarian played almost every possible match in the 2022-23 season, as neither Koeman at Barcelona, Luis Enrique at the Spanish national team, nor Luis de la Fuente with the Olympics squad allowed him any rest.
After playing 52 games for Barcelona in that season, he was able to play only 22 games in the following season as he suffered from two serious injuries, which can be directly attributed to his high workload in the previous season.
He once again suffered an injury to his left ankle in the UEFA EURO 2024 in the quarter-final against Germany. However, he was able to recover in time for the league opener against Valencia and has again played all the possible games with Barcelona and Spain since the start of the 2024-25 season.
Lastly, Fermin Lopez was also not able to get much rest last summer, as he was called up for the UEFA EURO 2024, and then also for the Paris Olympics. Although he played only 28 minutes in the former competition, he was an integral player for the Spanish side in the Olympics.
The midfielder was once again called up for the Spanish U-21 side in September, with whom he was injured while training. He returned to Barcelona with that injury, and two weeks later, he injured his other leg even before being able to return to the pitch.
In addition to these three players, Ansu Fati also played a lot of minutes with Spain, which ultimately resulted in the high number of injuries he suffered later in his career.
Thus, Barcelona have every reason to be concerned with Yamal’s situation, and hopefully, the national team will be more careful with him than it has been with Gavi, Pedri, and Fermin.