The 18-year-old still suffers from a groin injury that has been bothering him since the end of August.
Over the past two months, he has played irregularly, notably with Spain in early September, under local anesthesia by injections. Lamine Yamal then missed four games with Barcelona, playing 120 minutes against Real Sociedad and Paris Saint-Germain, before being unavailable again for three weeks. Since the international break in October, he played an hour against Girona, 75 minutes against Olympiakos and the entire match against Real Madrid.
Lamine Yamal consulted specialists for possible groin surgery.
This week it was reported that Lamine Yamal was still suffering from pain, after FC Barcelona assistant coach Marcus Sorg said he simply lacked pace. According to Sport, Lamine Yamal consulted external doctors to assess the progress of his injury.
Lamine Yamal struggled during the Clasico.
The surgical option has been discussed, but is not being considered at the moment. Lamine Yamal wishes to continue his conservative treatment, performing his physiotherapy exercises and playing for the next few weeks, before reassessing his situation.
The visible impact of his injury is also reflected in his statistics. Cadena SER points out that Lamine Yamal averaged 11.33 dribbles per match before his injury, compared to just 9.15 since. Furthermore, he attempted an average of 6.66 shots per game during the first part of the season, a statistic which has dropped to just 3.81 since his injury. In terms of goal contributions per match, this figure has fallen from 1.33 to 0.6, although FC Barcelona’s decline in form is also contributing to this decrease.
The positive point for Hansi Flick is that he hopes to be able to count on Lamine Yamal to face Elche on Sunday. He will be joined by attacking teammates Dani Olmo and Robert Lewandowski, who have been absent in Barca’s last three games due to muscle injuries, but who returned to training this week and should be available against Elche.
