The cold war between FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team continues. During the last international break in September, Lamine Yamal got injured and subsequently missed four matches for Barça. At the time, Barcelona manager Hansi Flick criticised Spain manager Luis de la Fuente, saying that he should take care of their players better, as he forced Yamal to play 90 minutes with pain.
Today, Spain manager Luis de la Fuente announced the squad list for the upcoming matches for Spain (against Georgia and Bulgaria on October 11-14), and Lamine Yamal was among the players called. This caused some turmoil in FC Barcelona, who want to protect their player and avoid the risk of injuries during one of those World Cup qualifying games (what many clubs call "the FIFA virus").
Hours later, FC Barcelona announced this: "the groin problem for Lamine Yamal has returned following the game against PSG. The player will miss the game against Sevilla and his recovery time is estimated at 2-3 weeks."
As a consequence, Lamine Yamal has been called off from Spain, with the Spanish Football Federation making clear that the medical report from Barcelona came late: "Following a request for medical information from the RFEF's medical services yesterday, FC Barcelona's medical services reported this afternoon, once the official squad was published, some discomfort in the pubic area".
This means that Lamine Yamal will not play with Barça against Sevilla next Sunday, and would also miss two other matches with his club in LaLiga and Champions. He would be available for the Clásico against Real Madrid on October 26.
Given the timing of the announcement and the exchange of reproaches between Hansi Flick and Luis de la Fuente in the last few days (De La Fuente said that he expected Flick, as a former national coach, to have "more empathy"), some people are thinking that Barça has purposedly waited until De La Fuente's list to see whether they announced Yamal's injury or not, some even thinking they are exaggerating or faking it. What do you think?