Yéremy Pino is likely to miss the rest of the World Cup with a broken collar bone and there are concerns Spain could also lose Nico Williams to a groin injury, as their qualification for the last 32 came at a heavy price.
Spain landed back in Chattanooga from Guadalajara just before 5am on Saturday. Tests will be carried out on both wingers to assess the extent of their injuries, with the selección due to train again at 6pm local time.
A 1-0 win over Uruguay in a physical and at times violent match in Guadalajara secured first place in Group H for Spain, but Pino, who came on as a second-half substitute, suffered a heavy fall. Although the Crystal Palace winger played on until the final whistle, he departed the stadium with his arm in a sling.
The Spain coach, Luis de la Fuente, described him as “heroic” and said he has a suspected fracture that is likely to rule him out of the rest of the competition.
Williams, who was also introduced in the second half, left the stadium head down and limping. Although he was the victim of a dreadful challenge from Nicolás de la Cruz, which sparked confrontations in the final minutes, it is not clear that is the cause of the injury.
De la Fuente said he was not sure if Williams might be suffering from a muscle strain or fatigue, but there was pessimism that the prognosis might be more serious as the national team began their journey back to their Tennessee training base.
The new Liverpool signing Víctor Muñoz, who has not played in the tournament, is still training alone. With Lamine Yamal also returning from an injury, although he has now been able to start the past two games, that means there are fitness doubts over all four natural wingers in the squad.
After the Uruguay match, the coach raised the possibility of having to approach the next round without wingers. “Yéremy has a fracture …” De la Fuente began to say, although he stopped himself as he did so, before continuing: “Well, we’ll see tomorrow. He might have an injury that prevents him from playing the rest of this World Cup. With Nico, we’ll see. He has some discomfort. We’ll see the extent of that tomorrow.
“We don’t know [what Williams’ injury is]. He has some small discomfort: it could be a muscle strain, it could be fatigue. We will wait until tomorrow. What we do [know], I’m sorry to say, is the tremendous pain we feel at Yéremy’s injury, which does look very bad, and there is a high possibility he will miss the rest of the competition.”
Like Lamine Yamal, Williams arrived at the World Cup still in the process of recovering from injury, with the coach trying to introduce his two wingers bit by bit. Out since April, Lamine Yamal had come on as a substitute in Spain’s opening game against Cape Verde, then started the matches against Saudi Arabia and Uruguay as he nears full fitness. The teenager is not yet there, though: he has played 19, 45 and 75 minutes respectively in Spain’s three matches so far.
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After a season when he sustained a sportsman’s hernia, as well as groin and hamstring injuries, Williams had targeted the third game against Uruguay as the day when he would be 100% fit and had said he had no problem with playing 90 minutes. Instead, he was introduced after 76 minutes. He had come on just after the hour against Saudi Arabia and on 87 against Cape Verde. He had played just six of the past 15 games and completed 90 minutes just three times.
As for Muñoz, he sustained a calf injury in the build up to the tournament and had a further set-back when he was diagnosed with another muscular injury. He is now training on the pitch but has not yet rejoined his teammates.
“We’re getting a bit short on specialist wingers,” De la Fuente said. “We won’t change our ideas, but will have different players with different characteristics. If we can’t play with wingers, we’ll play without wingers.”