Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi left the game injured in Barcelona’s 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou on Wednesday.
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The Argentinian maestro appeared to suffer the injury after tussling for possession with Atletico defender Diego Godin and was replaced by Arda Turan with 58 minutes gone.
Enrique admitted it would be “difficult to protect” Messi with the games coming thick and fast for Barcelona and with Argentina no doubt desperate to have him involved in next month’s World Cup qualifiers.
If Messi recovers within the three-week time frame given by the team, he will be back in time for Barcelona’s highly-anticipated match against Manchester City in the Champions League on October 19.
Messi’s earlier injury was to his left groin. The Barcelona star was twisting and trying make a pass when he tweaked the inside of his groin and immediately began to hobble.
“Without Messi we are much less strong but we can still be strong, we hope he improves and we’re going to continue as we need to continue, playing with confidence”.
But Barcelona may need to start taking a stronger line against Messi’s enthusiasm to play, even when not fully fit.
After this summer’s Copa America Centenario, where Messi missed a penalty in the shootout defeat to Chile in the final, the player said he was retiring from national team duty but he quickly reversed that decision. The Argentine has not had a full summer offseason since 2013, having played in the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and two successive years of Copa America tournaments. “A year ago he had a longer injury and we overcame it”.
In other matches tonight, Real Madrid also equalized against Villarreal 1-1 in the Spanish premier league.
The hosts had to wait until four minutes before the break to seriously threaten again when they took the lead.
In the 61st minute, Correa received a Fernando Torres pass just outside the box, cut inside past a fallen Javier Mascherano and dragged his right-footed shot across Barca keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen to earn the 2014 champions a valuable point on the road.
Barca’s Brazilian striker Neymar showed flashes of brilliance, forcing a good save out of Atletico’s Slovenian keeper Jan Oblak but his strike partner Luis Suarez had a quiet night.
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“I’m not a medic, I can’t give [detailed] information”, Barca boss Luis Enrique said in his post-match press conference.
