Spain are sweating on the fitness of winger Yeremy Pino after the Villarreal man picked up a suspected broken collarbone that could rule him out of the rest of the World Cup. It is the kind of injury news that nobody wants to hear at a tournament, and for Spain fans in particular, it stings a bit.
Pino is not always the first name on the teamsheet, but he is exactly the sort of player you want in your squad at a World Cup. He is quick, direct, and capable of doing something unpredictable when a game needs opening up. Losing that option from the bench is a proper headache for Spain manager Luis de la Fuente, even if the squad as a whole has plenty of quality to call on.
The timing is what really hurts. The further you go in a tournament, the more every available player matters. Rotations become trickier, injuries to key men become harder to cover, and suddenly the depth of your squad is tested in ways it simply is not during the group stage. Spain have been building nicely, and the last thing they need is to be reshuffling their attacking options because of bad luck with injuries.
It also raises an interesting question about whether Spain will look to bring a replacement into the squad, depending on the tournament rules in place. If they can add cover, you would expect them to move quickly. If they cannot, then De la Fuente will have to be creative about how he lines his side up in the later rounds.
For Pino himself, it is absolutely gutting. World Cups do not come around every year, and missing a chunk of one through no fault of your own is the sort of thing that stays with a player for a long time. You genuinely feel for him on a human level, regardless of which team you support.
Spain are still very much a team capable of going deep in this tournament, but this is a setback they could have done without. Let me know your thoughts.