Lamine Yamal's bandage: the telemetry sensor UEFA allows

Lamine Yamal's bandage is a sensor, not an EPO patch

It's not doping. The bandage the Barcelona winger wears on his hand is a telemetry sensor that measures glucose, lactate and heart rate in real time. It works like a smartwatch strapped on with medical tape, letting the coaching staff know live whether the player is about to hit the wall or still has fuel in the tank.

The confusion makes sense: at first glance it looks like a plaster, and in elite football any new item sets alarm bells ringing. The explanation with the most data on the table is clear: it's not a doping method, it's used by half the Premier League, and UEFA allows it. Lamine, as Barcelona's crown jewel, is watched with a magnifying glass, but he's wearing nothing different from what other players use.

The question that remains for FIFA

The issue gets murkier around the edges of the rules. The sensor is allowed, but someone should ask why it hasn't been regulated in more detail. If tomorrow they decide to ban it, the question will be inevitable: what exactly was it measuring?

The debate, as usual, runs into football's trenches and ends in mutual accusations: the zaineira case comes up as a pretext to distrust everything surrounding the blaugrana club. But the technical side proves something boring and almost obvious: the bandage isn't a trick, it's a telemetry heart-rate monitor.

We'll see how long it takes FIFA to say something. Until then, let no one confuse a sensor with a magic patch.