Is Lamine Yamal at risk of burnout? Spain vs Barcelona row shows increasingly injury-prone wonderkid must be better protected to reach his huge potential - and have the chance to match Lionel Messi

Yamal was just 15 years, nine months and 16 days old when he made his Barcelona debut against Betis on 29 April 2023. By the turn of the year, though, he was a first-team regular. Indeed, he sat out just one of Barca's 38 games during the 2023-24 Liga season and was involved in all 10 of their Champions League matches, starting seven of them.

His sensational performances for one of the biggest teams in Europe almost inevitably resulted in him being called up by Spain for Euro 2024. He was still only 16 at the time and had to bring school books with him to Germany to study for his exams - yet the braces-wearing winger taught Adrien Rabiot a harsh lesson about the perils of underestimating him during La Roja's thrilling tournament triumph.

There was no longer any hiding it or even playing it down. The hype was real. Yamal was already better than Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at the same age. Basically, not since Pele at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden had a teenager made such a spectacular and immediate impact on international football.

The problem, though, is that Yamal's importance to Barca and Spain has only grown over the past year, resulting in even more pressure being placed on a body that, as Lineker pointed out, is still developing.

Yamal featured in Barca's first 11 games of the 2024-25 season and the only match he didn't start, against Osasuna in La Liga, they lost. The youngster also played in Spain's first three Nations League games. However, after completing 90 minutes of the 1-0 win over Denmark on October 12, Yamal missed the meeting with Serbia three days later.

"Lamine had some discomfort at the end of the match at the weekend," De la Fuente said. "I spoke to him, and he told me that he thought he wouldn’t be 100 percent fit for Tuesday. When in doubt, we always bet on the health of the athlete."

Yamal returned to action for Barca after the international break but picked up an ankle injury that ruled him out of four games: two for his club (neither of which the Catalans won) and two for his country. Nonetheless, Yamal enjoyed a relatively pain-free second half of the season and ended up making 55 appearances for Barcelona in all competitions (five more than the previous campaign) before representing Spain at the Nations League finals.

It's worth noting at this point that Yamal felt little fatigue during the business end of the 2024-25 season, revealing that he was essentially taking a leaf out of Messi's book by conserving as much energy as possible during games for explosive bursts of brilliance.

"I think one thing I have learned this year is how to manage myself," he told ESPN. "There are people who say: 'Why don’t you move for 10 minutes?' But, at the end of the day, there are moments when you don't have to run all the time,

"You have to know how to manage yourself during the game, during the season, to know during training what you have to do ... So I think that's something I've learned. And, to be honest, I am doing really well."

Unfortunately, that's no longer the case and the question is who's to blame?

Yamal hit the ground running this season for Barcelona, with five goal involvements in his first three Liga outings. He also impressed for Spain in their World Cup qualifying wins over Bulgaria and Turkey at the start of September. However, that's when the trouble began, as Yamal went back to Barcelona with a groin problem and Flick was furious.

"He went to the national team with pain and did not train. They gave him painkillers to play. They had at least a three-goal lead in each match, and he played 73 and 79 minutes, and between matches, he couldn’t train," Flick fumed.

"That’s not taking care of the player. I think the Spanish national team has a great team, the best players in the world, but they haven't looked after their players and I’m very sad about this situation."

Yamal ended up missing four games for Barca before returning to action on September 28, setting up the winning goal in the 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad a minute after coming on as sub. He then played the entirety of the subsequent midweek Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain.

De la Fuente, thus, named Yamal in his squad for the October World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Bulgaria - much to the frustration of Flick and Barcelona.

De la Fuente insisted that there was "no conflict with Flick" over Yamal but nonetheless expressed his disappointment with the former Germany boss for his previous criticism of Spain.

"He was a national team coach himself and I believed he had that empathy," De La Fuente said. "He knows how we treat players. So, that's what surprises me, that a former coach would have that opinion."

De la Fuente also denied that there had been any indication that Yamal was struggling physically before or in between the September internationals.

"I always tell the truth," the Spain coach insisted. "These are normal aches, controllable pains. He never reported anything before the game and only mentioned some discomfort afterward."

In the end, Yamal didn't join up with the Spain squad, as Barcelona revealed that he had aggravated his groin problem during the PSG match and is now facing an unspecified spell on the sidelines.

"With this kind of injury, it's not so easy to know [when he will return]," Flick said on the eve of Sunday's La Liga clash with Sevilla, which the Blaugrana lost 4-1. "It's not easy to say 'OK he can play in two, three or four weeks...' or if he's able to play the Clasico (on October 26). This is not possible. We have to wait.

"He trains with the recovery team and [will spend] the next weeks with them. We go step by step. We have to see how it evolves. We must manage his workload."

Some are now arguing, though, that neither Spain nor Barca have done a particularly good job of managing Yamal's workload so far.

When FIFAPRO published its annual Player Workload Monitoring Report in 2024, there was considerable shock at just how much football Real Madrid and England star Jude Bellingham had played before turning 18 (6,216 minutes). However, this year's edition revealed that Yamal racked up nearly 2000 more minutes than Bellingham by the same cut-off point.

The report also pointed out that a number of fellow Golden Boy winners had been blighted by injuries after exploding onto the scene as teenagers, including Mario Gotze, Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and Renato Sanches, as well as two of Yamal's team-mates, Pedri and Gavi.

Tellingly, Yamal was even asked ahead of Euro 2024 if he was worried about ending up like Pedri - whose body broke down after playing 73 games for club and country in his first year after joining Barca - and he replied, "Well, in the end, it all depends on the person."

Certainly, a player must ultimately take responsibility for their own well-being but, given we're dealing with one so young, there is undeniably an onus here on both Barcelona and Spain to protect Yamal - and maybe even from himself, because footballers always want to play football, and thus sometimes make light of little niggles to do so.

Barca are also painfully aware of how injury can derail the career of a prodigious talent touted as 'The new Messi', with Ansu Fati only now starting to get back on track during a loan spell at Monaco, after smashing a succession of goalscorer records as a 16-year-old before being plagued by fitness problems.

Flick's role in Yamal's fitness is undoubtedly going to be key. The former Bayern Munich boss has played a pivotal part in getting Pedri in peak physical condition and the hope is that he can do likewise with Yamal.

Of course, it's not easy to limit the game time of such an influential attacker but it does feel imperative. For example, Messi was just about to turn 22 when he played a 50-game season for Barca for the first time; Yamal has already done it twice at the age of 18.

So, it was heartening to hear Flick adopt a more conciliatory tone at the weekend and call for a unified approach to taking care of Spanish football's most valuable asset.

"For me, it's done. I have no bad things about this situation," Flick said. "I know it from the other side. It's not easy for me. It's not easy for [De la Fuente]. But I must protect my player; this is the reason I made a little more noise than I normally do, and I don't regret that.

"Now, though, the important thing is managing this together. The player, the clubs and the Spanish Federation [RFEF] - we have to handle it together."

Keeping Yamal healthy is certainly in all of their interests. The longer he plays, the better it will be for everyone involved - and Yamal most of all.

Because it doesn't really matter if he proves himself as good as Messi; it's more about ensuring that a ludicrous workload doesn't prevent him from at least trying to do so.