Nico Williams has been struggling with persistent groin problems since last season, and the Bilbao striker is currently unavailable for selection. There is even talk in Spain of him possibly missing the World Cup.
Nico Williams on the pitch for the entire game? Bilbao fans have only seen that twice in the current La Liga season. In contrast, in his 17 appearances (four goals), he has been substituted four times and replaced eleven times. Last Saturday, he only came on in the 57th minute of the game against Sevilla FC (1-2).
However, when the 23rd-placed team in the Champions League table battles it out against Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday for a place in the play-offs, Nico Williams will be completely sidelined. “He is not fit to play at the moment,” explained his coach Ernesto Valverde. The 23-year-old is simply unable to get his groin inflammation under control, and all measures taken to aid his recovery have so far been in vain.
Nico Williams has been struggling with this problem since the end of last season, when the player and the club agreed on conservative treatment. This approach had ultimately proved successful in similar cases in Bilbao: his former teammate Dani Garcia (who joined Olympiacos Piraeus in the summer of 2024) and his current teammate Sancet suffered from similar problems but also opted against surgery. Both saw an improvement. Not so for Nico Williams.
Surgery no longer ruled out
Even a month-long break in September did not help the 2024 European champion from Spain. According to Marca, the situation is now “worrying” and “the alarm bells are ringing, as the groin inflammation is already jeopardizing the footballer’s rest of the season. It could even keep him out of the World Cup.”
Now the medical department is once again puzzling over how to get the younger of the two Williams brothers back on track—surgery is also being considered again. However, this would mean an unavoidable break of several months for the winger. And the World Cup is now only four months and 15 days away.