Athletic Bilbao star Inaki Williams has discovered that he was playing with a shard of glass in his foot for two years.
Williams has now undergone surgery to correct the issue, as reported by The Mirror.
The 29-year-old will be absent for Athletic’s final game of the LaLiga season, which sees them face Rayo Vallecano away on Saturday.
Williams had a scan in April after he had previously been struggling with a foot issue.
The scan revealed that Williams had glass in his foot as a result of an accident which had occurred two years previously.
Athletic Bilbao’s Inaki Williams discovered he played with shard of glass in foot for two years
Williams posted an Instagram story which showed the fragment of glass in his foot
Athletic Bilbao manager Ernesto Valverde commented on the situation.
Valverde said: ‘Inaki Williams has broken a record for consecutive games played and has won a Copa del Rey whilst having a two-centimetre glass stuck in the sole of his foot. It’s amazing, but it’s like that.
‘He [Inaki] has given me permission to tell this story because it is worth telling. For a few months he was reporting discomfort in his scar.
‘He was undergoing treatment and after the Copa del Rey final he had an MRI and he still had a glass stuck in the sole of his foot. When they stitched him up [two years ago], they left a glass of about two centimetres and it was already approaching the bone or a tendon.
Athletic Bilbao manager Ernesto Valverde commented on the rather unusual incident
‘The doctor and I started laughing [when we found out] because we couldn’t believe it.’
Williams posted a picture of the shard of glass on his Instagram story.
As Valverde alluded to, Williams previously broke the record for the most consecutive appearances in LaLiga, which stands at 251, with the sequence having come to an end in January 2023.
Williams, who mainly plays on the right flank, was part of the Athletic Bilbao side that won the Copa Del Rey this season.