Inaki Williams (foto: Uradni Twitter profil kluba/zveze)
Athletic Bilbao and Ghana striker Inaki Williams played for two years with a piece of glass in his foot, which has now been surgically removed.
Inaki Williams, the striker for Athletic Bilbao and the Ghana national team, has been playing with an unusual injury for the past two years. The 29-year-old, who notably played in 251 consecutive league matches for Athletic Bilbao, will miss the final game of the season against Rayo Vallecano on Saturday.
Athletic Bilbao's coach, Ernesto Valverde, confirmed to reporters on Friday afternoon that Williams is currently recovering from surgery after experiencing persistent foot problems. It was discovered that the striker had been playing with a two-centimeter piece of glass embedded in his foot.
Williams, who has clocked the second-highest number of minutes for Bilbao in La Liga this season, suffered the injury in 2022 when he stepped on broken glass. Believing that his foot had healed quickly, he continued to play, unaware that a large shard of glass remained in his foot.
Valverde stated in his pre-match press conference ahead of the team's trip to Madrid: "We took an X-ray after the final and found that there was still glass in his foot," said the coach of the Basque club. "When they first stitched him up, they left the glass inside. Moreover, it wasn't a small piece, but about 2 cm. It was next to the bone or tendon, and we had to remove it."
Valverde added: "The doctor and I were laughing because we couldn't believe it."