Lamine Yamal has been ruled out for the rest of FC Barcelona's season.
FC Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal has been ruled for the rest of the season, as confirmed by the club on Thursday afternoon in Catalonia.
“The tests carried out have confirmed that first-team player Lamine Yamal has a hamstring injury in his left leg (biceps femoris muscle),” a statement began.
“The player will follow a conservative treatment plan. Lamine Yamal will miss the remainder of the season, and he is expected to be available for the World Cup.”
Lamine injured himself when scoring a penalty he won against Celta Vigo on Wednesday evening.
Once more, the 1-0 victory gave Barca a nine-point lead in La Liga over arch nemesis Real Madrid at the top of the table.
Yet it was bittersweet because the Blaugrana have now lost their star player for a heavyweight El Clasico clash between the two behemoths, which will decide the Spanish league title on May 10.
Lamine went to ground after converting his penalty and called for help. Though he managed to hobble off down the tunnel amid a fan falling ill in the stands, reports quickly spread that he had torn his hamstring.
That Lamine could be ruled out for the rest of the season was already expected because of outlets like Mundo Deportivo citing an absence timeframe of four to five weeks.
With a third La Liga crown in four years possibly wrapped up against Valencia a month from now on the weekend of May 23-24, it is in a Spain shirt that we’ll likely see Lamine grace the pitch again.
Spain fans will probably feel more at ease that Lamine appears set to make Luis de la Fuente’s reigning European champion squad heading to North America.
Yet Culers are far from settled. There’s a worry that Lamine might be rushed back to action for the World Cup, and Doctor Pedro Luis Ripoll has already appeared on popular radio station COPE to explain that there’s a 30% chance of reoccurence.
Considering season-damaging knocks to Raphinha which played a part in the painful Champions League quarterfinal defeat to Atletico Madrid last week, Barca can really do without losing Lamine for the start of FC Barcelona’s 2026/2027 campaign if things don’t go well in the United States.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com