Barcelona drew 1-1 on Wednesday night with Atletico Madrid, but the main talking point was an injury to Lionel Messi. He returned last week to score a hat trick in a 7-0 win against Celtic in the Champions League and then added two goals in the 5-1 win over Leganes on Saturday.
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Messi won’t play in at least three games – at Sporting Gijon and Celta Vigo in the Spanish league, and at Borussia Moenchengladbach in the Champions League.
Argentina head coach Edgardo Bauza has accused Barcelona of not doing enough to protect Lionel Messi from injury.
“Barcelona always sends us messages saying that we must take care of Messi, but they don’t take care of him very well”, Bauza told Fox Sports.
In the nine games he missed from September through November, Barcelona won seven, drawing one and losing another – a 2-1 defeat at Sevilla.
They play Peru in Lima on October 6 before hosting Paraguay on October 11 in Cordoba.
It is not the first time this season that the Argentine has suffered a groin injury, after earlier this month returning to the Nou Camp early from worldwide duty to begin rehabilitation.
The home side were dealt a heavy blow in the 59th minute as manager Luis Enrique was forced to substitute Lionel Messi, who picked up a groin injury.
It was Messi’s Argentine compatriot Correa who brought the visitors level with his first action of the game just a minute after coming on, steering the ball in off the left post from 18 yards after Mascherano had slipped in front of him. “That’s the way we will go, convinced of the need to win and to carry on playing well”. He announced himself fit to play against Alaves before Coach Luis Enrique made a decision to rest him.
Messi had the first effort on goal, but his fierce effort was comfortably handled by Jan Oblak in the Atletico goal.
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After doing his utmost to run it off, it soon became clear that the issue concerning Messi was more than just a knock, with the Barcelona man limping off to rapturous ovations from the Blaugrana faithful just before the hour-mark.
