Cannot load image from URL passed as parameter

I am currently trying to load an image using the WWW class using the following function, which works as intended when i hardcode the url i want to load the image from into the function. However when i try to pass the url as a paramater things start to get wacky.

  private IEnumerator LoadImage(string url, Image image)
     {
         //url = url.Replace(" ", string.Empty);
         Debug.Log(url);
         //url = "https://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/photos/000/755/75552.ngsversion.1422285553360.adapt.1900.1.jpg"; //random cat image
         //Debug.Log(url);
         Texture2D texture;
         Sprite sprite;
 
         using (WWW www = new WWW(url))
         {
             yield return www;
 
             texture = www.texture;
             Rect rec = new Rect(0f, 0f, www.texture.width, www.texture.height);
             sprite = Sprite.Create(texture, rec, Vector2.one / 2f, 100f);
             if (image != null)
             {
                 image.sprite = sprite;
                 //image.color = Color.cyan;
             }
         }
     }

using the string from the parameter url the image won't load, only giving the red question mark on the white background. However when i hardcode the URL into the function (as commented out in the code section above) the image loads just fine.

i pass the arguments from the following piece of code:

      ResponseClass response = QueryResponseQueue.GetResponse(sequenceNumber);
        string url = response.data[1];
        StartCoroutine(LoadImage(url, image));

ResponseClass contains int sequenceNumber and string[] data of which data[0] is the status of the query (OK for succeeded query, error otherwise, this returns OK) and data[1] is the url of the image (which works in the browser if i log it and input it into a browser).

I have tried removing any spaces that might occur at the end of the string and have logged the result from before and after i hardcode in the url. both Debug.Log(url); (before and after hardcoding) print the exact same string.

thanks in advance!

-Remy