Spain Coach Luis de la Fuente Confident in World Cup Readiness

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente insists he will have his attacking jewels ready for the World Cup, even as injuries pile up around him in the final stretch of the club season.

Lamine Yamal, just 18 and already central to Spain’s plans, is racing the clock after a hamstring injury in late April ended his season with Barcelona. The club expect him to be fit for the summer showpiece in the United States, Canada and Mexico, but he will arrive with limited rhythm and no competitive minutes for weeks.

He is not alone on the treatment table. Athletic Bilbao’s Williams suffered a muscle injury on Sunday, while Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino has been out for three months with a broken right foot. Three key profiles. Three different problems. One looming deadline.

De la Fuente, though, cut a calm figure as he addressed journalists.

“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 said, before allowing for a small margin of delay. If they do not make the opener, he stressed, they should be ready for the second or third game and “it doesn’t cause any major setbacks”.

For a coach, that is as close to a public guarantee as it gets.

He did not hide the strain that this phase of the season brings. It has been, he admitted, “a very tough year in terms of injuries”. Every sprint, every duel in these final club fixtures feels like a risk.

“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 said.

That is the tightrope: players needing games to stay sharp, coaches silently praying they come through unscathed.

De la Fuente also confirmed that Spain will take the full allowance of 26 players to the World Cup. The core group is set to travel, but he will cast the net slightly wider for the warm‑up phase. Additional players will be called in for a friendly against Iraq on June 4, a final audition for those on the fringes and a chance to manage minutes for those returning from injury.

World Cup Campaign

Spain open their World Cup campaign against Cape Verde on June 15 in Atlanta, a fixture that should, on paper, allow them to settle into the tournament before the sterner tests of Uruguay and Saudi Arabia in the same group.

If Yamal, Williams and Merino all make it back in time, Spain’s squad will look deep, varied and dangerous. If there is another setback in this “tragedy of sport” De la Fuente talks about, the picture could change in an instant.