Spain has suffered a huge injury blow ahead of the second half of their Euro 2024 final against England.

Rodri, widely regarded as one of the best midfielders in the world, was deemed unable to play in the second half after a sluggish first half performance by both teams.

The Spanish player was substituted for Martín Zubimendi.

Spain did not appear to be discouraged by the substitution of their hero, with Nico Williams scoring the game’s first goal minutes into the second half.

Rodri’s absence may still harm Spain, though, with Wayne Rooney claiming the player is better than Sergio Busquets ahead of kickoff.

He remarked, “Rodri is the heartbeat of this Spanish team.” He is similar to Sergio Busquets, one of the best players I’ve ever played against. Except Rodri is probably a better option in the long run.

“He has scored some important goals for Manchester City, and he gets Spain involved. England cannot give him that much time on the ball, because if he does, he will harm you and dominate the game.”

Nonetheless, there was fighting talk from Kyle Walker prior to the game, who claimed to be aware of holes in Rodri’s game that might be exploited.

“He’s a great player, and he controls the game and dictates the game at his own pace as I know at club level,” Walker added to talkSPORT.

“But we’ve seen film clips [of him], I know him first and foremost, and there are flaws in everyone’s game. No one is perfect.

“But we need to try and exploit those flaws as much as possible, and get the players we have in dangerous places to go and score.

“And as a defence, we need to make sure we keep clean sheets.”