Nico Williams flies to Birmingham for specialist treatment as Athletic Bilbao sweat on star's return
Nico Williams has visited a specialist clinic in Birmingham as part of his ongoing pubalgia treatment, with no clear return date yet in sight.
Nico Williams is back on Spanish soil after a trip to Birmingham this week — and while it wasn’t exactly a city break, the Athletic Bilbao winger was there for a very specific reason: getting specialist eyes on his ongoing pubalgia problem.
What’s the issue?
Nico has been sidelined with pubalgia — essentially a sports hernia — since missing the match against Oviedo, after which Athletic confirmed he’d be out indefinitely. It’s the kind of injury that doesn’t always scream headlines but can absolutely ruin a player’s season if it’s not handled properly.
He’s been doing the bulk of his rehab work at Zentrum Sport in Pamplona, the facility run by Jurdan Mendigutxia, but this week’s Birmingham trip was about getting specialist input from a clinic with real expertise in abdominal injuries.
Why Birmingham, though?
Fair question. Turns out the clinic in the English Midlands has built a serious reputation for dealing with exactly this sort of problem — abdominal wall injuries, groin issues, the lot. Their approach is centred on strengthening the muscle groups around the abdominal wall and groin, which is the kind of targeted, non-invasive work that makes sense as a first port of call.
- The treatment can involve local injections of painkillers and anti-inflammatories
- Those injections can sometimes require a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE)
- Surgery is considered a viable option by the clinic — but only as a last resort, once all non-surgical routes have been exhausted and symptoms refuse to budge
What happens next?
For now, Nico is back in the Basque Country and was spotted in the players’ box at San Mamés on Friday evening — so he’s around the squad, even if he’s not pulling on the shirt just yet. There’s no confirmed timeline for his return, which will be a bit of a headache for Athletic given how important he is to everything they do going forward.
The good news is that the conservative, non-surgical route seems to be the plan — and the fact he’s already getting specialist input this early in the process suggests the club are being proactive rather than just hoping it sorts itself out.
Keep an eye on how this one develops. Pubalgia can linger, and with the business end of the season approaching, Athletic will be desperate to have their main man fit and firing.