The run-up to the 2026 World Cup is shaping as much around rehabilitation as selection. Across Europe several of the game\u2019s most influential internationals are carrying injuries that have already curtailed club seasons or left their participation in doubt.<\/p>\n
Lamine Yamal\u2019s hamstring problem has ruled him out for the remainder of the season with Barcelona, though the club have insisted he should feature at the World Cup. Est\u00eav\u00e3o and Arda G\u00fcler have also suffered hamstring injuries and been ruled out for the rest of their club campaigns at Chelsea and Real Madrid respectively. Reports say G\u00fcler is still set to appear at his first World Cup.<\/p>\n
Some long-serving figures have been struck down too. Luka Modri\u0107 suffered a fractured cheekbone in AC Milan\u2019s match with Juventus and will miss the rest of the Serie A season. Cristian Romero suffered a season-ending knee injury in Roberto De Zerbi\u2019s first game in charge of Tottenham and was in tears at the time; his availability for the tournament remains unclear.<\/p>\n
Mohamed Salah\u2019s club season ended with an unflattering final touch for Liverpool, and his previous World Cup involvement in Russia was affected by fitness concerns after a dislocated shoulder in the Champions League final. \u00c9der Milit\u00e3o has again gone down with a hamstring issue and has been ruled out for the rest of the club season alongside G\u00fcler, with recent reports suggesting his injury may be worse than first feared.<\/p>\n
Mikel Merino has been absent since undergoing surgery on a fractured foot in January but is expected to be considered by Spain. Dejan Kulusevski is still working his way back after nearly a year out and admitted: “I haven\u2019t played in a year. I know what the chances are,” and added, “But if there is one person on the planet who can do this, I would bet on myself. And we are not just going there to participate. Sweden will aim to be one of the best.”<\/p>\n
Other concerns include Matthijs de Ligt, sidelined since November with a back problem but back on the grass at Carrington, Reece James with a fresh hamstring setback, Mohammed Kudus whose comeback was ended by a new quad issue and Jo\u0161ko Gvardiol after a broken leg in the new year. For all of them the coming weeks will determine whether they travel in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Major internationals face late fitness tests ahead of June 11 start; hamstrings, fractures headline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1330,192,1017,190,961,175,238,179,987,187],"tags":[1084,1073,1384],"class_list":["post-13172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ac-milan","category-arsenal","category-barcelona","category-chelsea","category-international","category-liverpool","category-manchester-city","category-manchester-united","category-real-madrid","category-tottenham-hotspur","tag-achilles-injury","tag-acl-injury","tag-broken-leg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}