Barcelona has confirmed that Lionel Messi will be sidelined for three weeks with a groin strain.
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Earlier this month, the striker missed Argentina’s 2018 World Cup qualifier against Venezuela as he recovered from a torn abductor.
Leo will miss the next three Barça matches, against Celta Vigo and Sporting Gijón in the league, as well as the Champions League trip to Borussia Mönchengladbach next week.
He returned for the 7-0 demolition of Scotland champions Celtic in the UEFA Champions League where he scored a hat-trick and followed that up with a brace last weekend against Leganes.
“When there are 11 guys in the area, co-ordinated like that, it takes a lot out of us to break them down”, he said in quotes reported by Marca. He is certain to miss Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers against Peru on October 6 and Paraguay on October 11. With Leo we are stronger, but we are still strong without him’.
Messi was diagnosed with a muscle injury before the global break but he played in Argentina’s 1-0 win against Uruguay on 1 September. The visitors eliminated the Catalans from last year’s Champions League, denying them a chance to win the European crown twice.
Defensively, we played a very complete first half.
However, the good news is that Messi’s injury will not end up with him missing any big games as Barcelona will face just three games, with trips to Sporting Gijon, Borussia Monchengladbach and Celta Vigo coming up before October’s worldwide break all of them away from home. “But we hope that it is nothing serious and that in three weeks he returns to action”. We attacked really well and they defended amazingly.
“Bauza said the team doctors of the Argentine national side were waiting for an MRI to know the level of the injury”.
Luis posted a photo of a stud mark piercing his bleeding foot on his official Instagram page after the match with the message: “Just as well he didn’t touch me”. “It happened today but it’s not going to change how we want to play”. “We must wait until they arrive to see who is in better shape”.
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Samuel Marsden covers Barcelona for ESPN FC.
