MADRID (AP) — Lamine Yamal was scared of missing the World Cup after injuring his hamstring and prayed that he could recover in time.
Yamal is expected to be fit for the tournament that begins on June 11 in North America. He injured his left hamstring while converting a penalty kick with Barcelona in a Spanish league match on April 22.
“I never had a hamstring injury like that but I knew that it wasn’t going to be a short recovery time,” Yamal said in an interview with the Spanish soccer federation published on Sunday. “I was afraid that it was something serious or that it could relapse and that I would miss the World Cup.”
The 18-year-old Yamal went down after converting a first-half penalty kick in the game against Celta Vigo. He scored and immediately looked to the bench to signal he was hurt. He dropped to the ground as his teammates arrived to celebrate, then appeared to grab the back of his left leg.
“I remember the play in which I got injured,” Yamal said. “I was praying inside for it not to be serious, for it to be a cramp or something like that, because I knew the World Cup was very close.”
Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said last week after including Yamal in his World Cup squad that the forward was expected to be ready to play either the first or second Spain match. La Roja will debut against Cape Verde on June 15 in Atlanta. It then faces Saudi Arabia on June 21 in Atlanta and Uruguay on June 26 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Yamal is expected to lead the Spain squad that will try to win its second world title. It won the World Cup for the first time in South Africa in 2010.
“The moment has finally arrived,” Yamal said. “I think that ever since the European Championship ended, we’ve all been thinking about this day, and we are all very excited. We will enter the tournament as the European champions, and we are going to give it everything we have.”
Spain officially began its World Cup preparations on Saturday in Madrid. Some 2,000 people watched the team’s first training session on Sunday.
___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
