Lionel Messi is out three weeks with a groin strain in his right leg, the club announced on Wednesday.
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“I’m not a doctor and I can’t give any information here but when Messi is injured we all lose, football loses”, Barca coach Luis Enrique said.
FC’s Paolo Bandini discusses how Lionel Messi’s injury in the match against Atletico Madrid will affect Barcelona.
The five-times world player of the year limped off in the second half of Barca’s La Liga match at the Nou Camp, moments before the visiting side equalised.
Messi also missed Argentina’s World Cup qualifier with Venezuela earlier in the month as a result of the same groin problem.
“We now have to look for different solutions”.
Late last season there were suggestions Messi was continuing to play while suffering from a muscle injury and after returning from national team duty.
Barca revealed on their official twitter account that the Argentinian worldwide will be out for three weeks with a groin injury. “We talked at half-time and the team was able to react in the second half and played with more aggression”.
Ivan Rakitic and Angel Correa were the goalscorers in the La Liga match at the Camp Nou, but it was Messi and his injury that ended up being the major talking point after the final whistle.
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. The two scored 18 goals between them with Messi sidelined.
Although the injury leaves Barcelona facing the hard task of playing without the star midfielder, it has no need to panic.
“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. It leads Group C in the Champions League thanks to its 7-0 rout of Celtic in the opener on September 13 – a game in which Messi scored three goals.
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“This is football, it is a man’s game and what happens on the pitch stays on the pitch”, added Suarez.
