Barcelona leak evidence of Spain treatment of Lamine Yamal

The malcontent between Barcelona and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) continued on Monday, as the former complained that they had mishandled their player. The Spain setup have denied any issues with their use of Lamine Yamal over the most recent international break.

Lamine Yamal came off twice against Bulgaria and Turkiye, playing over 70 minutes, despite having a back injury, and Spain being comfortably ahead, according to Barcelona manager Hansi Flick. The German coach made his anger known, criticising Spain publicly, and Lamine Yamal is now set to miss their Champions League debut against Newcastle United after sitting out against Valencia.

‘We injected him with Voltaren’ – Message from Spain camp

There are differing versions on what occurred during the international break. As per Cadena SER, Barcelona did not indicate to the RFEF that Lamine Yamal had an injury, and as far as they were aware, did not have any pain. However Barcelona have leaked that they have messages from the RFEF saying that ‘We injected him in the spine with Voltaren because he couldn’t leave the hotel, and he asked us not to play.’

RFEF denies issues, preaches dialogue

Even so, the RFEF are keen not to get involved in a war of words, and that Lamine Yamal gave them the green light to start, as per Marca. They say Barcelona intend to intensify contacts between Director of Football Deco and Spain Director of Football Aitor Karanka in order to avoid issues in the future.

Images: All smiles during today’s training session. @FCBarcelona pic.twitter.com/Z5BNQotsYc

— barcacentre (@barcacentre) September 15, 2025

Lamine Yamal arrived at Spain camp with discomfort

Despite Flick’s anger, it has been pointed out that Barcelona were aware of his discomfort some time ago. The 18-year-old started and played the full 90 minutes against Rayo Vallecano on the Sunday before joining up with the Spain squad, and had showed signs of back discomfort prior to the atch.