Spain Coach Luis de la Fuente Confident for World Cup Despite Injuries

Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente insists he will have his stars ready for the World Cup, even as injuries pile up at the worst possible moment.

The build-up has turned into a race against time.

Lamine Yamal, the 18-year-old phenomenon who has lit up Barcelona’s season, has been sidelined since late April with a hamstring injury and has already been ruled out for the remainder of the club campaign. Barcelona expect him to recover in time for the summer showpiece in the United States, Canada and Mexico, but every week he spends away from the pitch sharpens the focus on his fitness.

On Sunday, Spain absorbed another blow. Athletic Bilbao’s Williams suffered a muscle injury, adding his name to a growing list of concerns. Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino remains out as well, still recovering from a broken right foot sustained three months ago.

De la Fuente, though, is refusing to blink.

“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,” he told journalists, projecting calm at a time when many international coaches are scanning medical reports with dread.

He allowed for some margin of delay but not of doubt.

“If it's not for the first match, it would be for the second or third, and it doesn't cause any major setbacks,” the Spain boss said, before underlining just how bruising this campaign has been. It has, he admitted, been “a very tough year in terms of injuries.”

The strain of a packed calendar hangs over every decision. De la Fuente did not hide from that reality.

“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 added.

Those words capture the knife-edge on which elite football now sits: one sprint too many, one tackle mistimed, and a World Cup dream can vanish.

Even so, Spain’s planning continues with clarity. De la Fuente confirmed he will name a 26-man squad for the tournament, using the full allowance. Around that core, he intends to build a wider training group, calling in additional players for a friendly against Iraq on June 4. That game will act as both a tune-up and an audition, a final look at options in case the injury list grows longer.

The countdown is already marked by specific dates and cities. Spain open their World Cup campaign against Cape Verde on June 15 in Atlanta, a fixture they will be expected to control from the first whistle. Uruguay and Saudi Arabia complete a group that offers danger as well as opportunity.

By then, De la Fuente expects Yamal, Williams and Merino to be back in his hands, not the doctors’. If that happens, Spain arrive with their armoury intact. If it doesn’t, this World Cup could quickly test the depth of his conviction.