Lamine Yamal aggravates groin injury: Barcelona should rest their teenage star to protect his long-term health

Barcelona’s injury crisis just deepened ahead of facing Sevilla in LaLiga play. It has already been a tough week for Barcelona, with Raphina and starting goalkeeper Joan Garcia picking up injuries before they fell to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. Now, Lamine Yamal will head back to the sidelines after aggravating an injury to his “pubic area.” It’s an injury that Yamal picked up on international duty with Spain and has already caused him to miss four matches. 

Facing PSG, it was Yamal’s first start since recovering from the injury, and Hansi Flick opted to play a full 90 minutes due to Barcelona chasing the game. Now, he’ll miss more time. Already being one of the best players on the Spanish national team and for Barcelona, Yamal is called upon constantly, but after Hansi Flick called out the national team for pushing Yamal to play through pain, he then didn’t manage his young star’s minutes coming back from injury. 

Barcelona have stated that Yamal will miss two to three weeks with the latest aggravation of his injury, but even if he’s healthy Barcelona should take their time bringing him back. Only 18, Yamal’s workload has increased drastically with both his club and country needing him. He already has 111 appearances for Barcelona and 23 caps for Spain, but a long rest could be what’s best for all parties.

Lamine Yamal’s senior minutes played for Barcelona by season

In a sport like baseball, it’s common to see pitchers skip starts and get shut down late in the season to avoid their innings pitched from jumping drastically from one season to the next. Soccer players hit the pitch more often than a starting pitcher, with games coming every three to four days during the busy periods of the season. That saw Yamal’s minutes jump drastically last season with Barcelona chasing a treble, but for his longevity and the success of the club, a rest could be in order.

It doesn’t take much for a reaggravation of an injury to become a chronic injury, and while Barcelona are at their best with Yamal in the lineup, they’re undefeated without him this season as well. Adding Marcus Rashford was supposed to give Flick the ability to rotate his star wingers, and Ferran Torres can also play on the wing. Considering that Barcelona don’t just have a budding star on their hands, they have a bona fide global superstar in 18-year-old Yamal, they need to keep it that way for the long run.

Considering that Yamal is a generational talent, taking any risks with his health isn’t something that Barcelona should do. They’re set on the wing for seasons to come with Yamal in the lineup, and jeopardizing that isn’t worth a chance at three points in any given week. Even facing PSG, it was clear that he was rusty, but when the time came for substitutions, he stayed on to play a full 90 minutes.

The bright side of this is that it means that Yamal won’t be going on national team duty with Spain, meaning that at the earliest, his next match will be against Girona in LaLiga play on October 18. But if he’s not 100% for that, sitting things out to make sure he’s ready for El Clásico near the end of October shouldn’t be out of the question.