Lionel Messi admits he is a ‘little tired’ and wants to ‘return home’ from Inter Miami’s globetrotting preseason Asia tour after Hong Kong fans were left furious he missed a game injured – but there’s one more left to play in Japan!
- Lionel Messi struggled with an injury during the preseason in Miami
- The Herons will have flown more than 27,000 miles by the time their tour ends
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Lionel Messi has admitted he wants to return ‘home’ from Inter Miami’s global tour, which has seen the team travel thousands of miles to Asia and the Middle East.
The Herons have gone from El Salvador to Texas, to Saudi Arabia and then to Hong Kong, where fans were left furious when they saw an injured Messi not take the field.
The Herons still have one match left in Tokyo against Vissel Kobe, although Messi is apparently burned out.
“I’m a little tired from this whole tour, (I have) a desire to finish the last match and return home,” he said at a press conference.
Messi missed the previous match against a Hong Kong League XI with an inflamed adductor muscle, angering both fans who paid between £99 and £498 for tickets and the Hong Kong government.
Lionel Messi said he is “a little tired” and wants to “return home” from the preseason tour in Miami
Fans in Hong Kong were disappointed not to see an injured Messi take the field
The government claimed he was contractually obliged to play 45 minutes and demanded an explanation.
All told, the Herons will have traveled more than 17,000 miles by the time their preseason is over.
The team will also fly across the country to LA for its second MLS match.
Messi’s status for Wednesday’s match is up in the air, and regardless of whether he plays, the match will not be streamed on Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass – as Miami’s previous preseason matches have been.
Messi was an unused substitute in Hong Kong and played just seven minutes vs. Al-Nassr
MLS confirmed this and blamed promoter NSN, which was co-founded by Andres Iniesta (who spent five years at Vissel Kobe).
“As with all international matches on Inter Miami CF’s preseason tour, production of the match’s guest feed is the responsibility of the promoter,” MLS said. The Athletics in a statement.
‘Unfortunately, the local promoters for the Vissel Kobe match are unable to provide a world feed for distribution in the time frame necessary to meet our technical needs, which directly impacts our ability to produce coverage for the MLS Season Pass or the MLS website.”
The match, which kicks off at 5 a.m. ET, was previously listed on the MLS Season Pass.