Yamal feared for World Cup chances after injury
Lamine Yamal feared he might miss Spain's 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign after suffering a season-ending hamstring injury with Barcelona in April.
Yamal missed the final six games of the Blaugrana's LaLiga title-winning campaign after sustaining the issue while converting a penalty in a 1-0 win over Celta Vigo on 23 April (AEST).
That led to fears that the teenage sensation could miss the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, but he has been included in coach Luis de la Fuente's 26-man squad.
De la Fuente said Yamal was expected to recover in time to feature in one of Spain's first two Group H games, against Cape Verde on 16 June (AEST) and Saudi Arabia on 22 June (AEST).
Yamal admitted the tournament was his first thought when he picked up the injury.
"I never had a hamstring injury like that, but I knew that it wasn't going to be a short recovery time," Yamal said.
"I was afraid that it was something serious or that it could relapse and that I would miss the [2026 FIFA] World Cup.
"I remember the play where I got injured. I was praying inside for it not to be serious, for it to be a cramp or something like that, because I knew the World Cup was very close."
At UEFA Euro 2024, Yamal became the youngest goalscorer at a European championship or FIFA World Cup, overtaking Pele, after the Brazil great scored as a 17-year-old against Wales at the 1958 FIFA World Cup.
Yamal, the young player of the tournament in Germany, provided four assists, the most recorded by a player at a single edition of the European championship, having started the tournament as a 16-year-old.
Spain, a major favourite to lift the 2026 FIFA World Cup, is looking to become the fourth nation to hold both the European and world titles simultaneously, and the first to do so since Spain itself achieved that feat between 2008 and 2012.
La Roja is unbeaten in its past 31 competitive matches since a 2-0 loss in Scotland in March 2023. It is its longest run of non-friendlies without defeat, and includes 25 wins.
Yamal knows expectations are high.
"I think that ever since the European championship ended, we've all been thinking about this day, and we are all very excited," he added.
"We will enter the tournament as the European champion, and we are going to give it everything we have."
