Luis de la Fuente Remains Calm Amid Injury Concerns for Spain's World Cup Squad

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente is refusing to panic. Even as injuries nip away at the spine of his World Cup plans, he insists the core of his squad will be ready when the lights go up in the United States, Canada and Mexico this summer.

The headlines have not been kind. Lamine Yamal, the 18‑year‑old phenomenon around whom Barcelona and Spain have begun to draw up entire tactical blueprints, tore a hamstring in late April. His club quickly ruled him out for the rest of the season. For most national coaches, losing a player of that talent on the eve of a major tournament would trigger alarm.

De la Fuente is holding his line.

Barcelona expect Yamal to recover in time for the tournament, and the Spain coach echoed that optimism when he faced journalists. He grouped the teenager with two other key names on the treatment table: Athletic Bilbao’s Williams, who suffered a muscle injury on Sunday, and Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino, sidelined since breaking his right foot three months ago.

“I think that all the players who have been mentioned will be fit and available for the start of the World Cup and I believe for the first match,” De la Fuente said. If not, he argued, they should still play a part almost immediately. “If it's not for the first match, it would be for the second or third, and it doesn't cause any major setbacks.”

That calm tone hides a brutal reality. This has been a punishing season, and Spain’s coach knows it.

He described it as “a very tough year in terms of injuries” and did not sugarcoat the strain on his staff. “The world of injuries, which is the tragedy of sport, is what truly keeps us under a lot of pressure, especially in this critical phase because injuries that occur from now on, any minor muscular injury, are really difficult to recover from,” he admitted.

Every sprint in training now carries risk. Every friendly, every league fixture that runs late into May, feels like a gamble with World Cup minutes.

De la Fuente is trying to control what he can. He confirmed that Spain will take the full allowance of 26 players to the World Cup, leaning on depth to cushion any late setbacks. Around that core, he will cast the net slightly wider for the final tune‑up.

Additional players will join the group for a friendly against Iraq on June 4, a final audition before the coach locks in his tournament squad. For fringe contenders, that game is not just a warm‑up; it is the last door to Atlanta.

Because that is where Spain’s campaign begins. On June 15, they open against Cape Verde in Georgia, a fixture that looks straightforward on paper but carries all the tension of a first World Cup outing. Uruguay and Saudi Arabia complete a group that offers no room for complacency and little margin for error if injuries bite again.

Spain’s plans, then, rest on a delicate balance: trust in recovery, faith in depth, and the hope that the worst of the season’s damage has already been done. The names are big, the calendar is unforgiving, and the World Cup clock is ticking.