Iñaki Williams shakes off injury to make amazing 237th straight LaLiga appearance

Iñaki Williams celebrates after scoring for Athletic Club against Cadiz in LaLiga. — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Athletic Club attacker Iñaki Williams recovered from an ankle injury in time to continue his incredible run of appearances in LaLiga.

Williams was injured during Athletic's 4-0 win at Cadiz last weekend – his 236th consecutive game for the Basque outfit in LaLiga – and was expected to miss Sunday's clash at home to Espanyol.

But the 28-year-old was named in the starting line-up by coach Ernesto Valverde and played the opening 71 minutes in his side's 1-0 loss to Espanyol.

Both Iñaki and brother Nico featured from the outset in Athletic's first defeat of the season, but neither were on the pitch when Martin Braithwaite netted a late winner for the visitors.

The elder of the Williams brothers, Iñaki has not missed a match in LaLiga for six-and-a-half years.

He broke the previous record of 203 consecutive appearances, set by Juan Antonio Larrañaga of Real Sociedad between 1986 and 1992, in a home match against Deportivo Alaves last year.

And on Sunday, he extended that mark to 237 – a record which seems unlikely to be broken for a long, long time.

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Ben Hayward is a European football writer and Tottenham Hotspur fan with over 15 years’ experience, he has covered games all over the world - including three World Cups, several Champions League finals, Euros, Copa America - and has spent much of that time in Spain. Ben speaks English and Spanish, currently dividing his time between Barcelona and London, covering all the big talking points of the weekend on FFT: he’s also written several list features and interviewed Guglielmo Vicario for the magazine.