Spain manager contradicts RFEF statement on Barcelona injury

Spain defeated Georgia 2-0 on Saturday night, and they did so despite being without a number of their regular starters. Dani Olmo falls into this category, with the Barcelona midfielder having been ruled out of both matches during the international break as he is suffering with muscle fatigue.

Olmo had been named in the squad to face Georgia and Bulgaria, but on Friday, he was forced to withdraw himself from contention. Interesting, the medical report from the Spanish Football Federation noted that he arrived at the start of the week with discomfort, for which he was being managed.

However, this statement has now been contradicted by Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente, who spoke on the Olmo situation after the Georgia victory (via MD).

“Dani was in perfect condition, there was no medical report (from Barcelona) and he simply had a small discomfort. He hadn’t trained all week thinking that the evolution would be better, but finally the discomfort increased and we decided, for his health and safety, that he would leave the concentration, knowing that he was hardly going to be for Tuesday.

“If we had been certain that he could be without risk, as we always do, he would have stayed.”

Barcelona yet to know full extent of Olmo injury

As for the injury itself, Barcelona will conduct their own medical tests on Monday. It’s a calf issue that Olmo is dealing with, and Hansi Flick will be desperate for it to not be serious, given that the Catalans have a gruelling fixture schedule over the coming weeks – with the standout match being their trip to the Santiago Bernabeu in two weeks’ time.

For now, it remains to be seen how serious Olmo’s issue is. If it is only discomfort, he would be fine for next weekend, although it is more likely that he is absent for at least 2-3 weeks.