Lionel Messi flies out to spoil Charlotte’s playoff hopes this weekend despite Inter Miami being eliminated from playoff contention

Lionel Messi won’t play in the MLS Cup Playoffs, but he could play a spoiler on Saturday night when Inter Miami visits Charlotte FC in both teams’ regular-season finales.

A leg ailment had limited Messi, 36, to just two appearances — playing a total of 72 minutes — for Miami (9-17-7, 34 points) since Labor Day. And by the time he was able to contribute again, his stint as a second-half substitute ended in a 1–0 home loss to Cincinnati on October 7, eliminating the Herons from playoff contention.

But Messi followed that with two appearances for Argentina in World Cup qualifying, scoring twice and playing the whole 90 minutes in the latter, a 2-0 win over Peru on Tuesday.

He returned in time to watch the 2-2 draw between Miami and Charlotte in Florida from the sidelines on Wednesday and had said after his performance at DRV PNK Stadium that he plans to play on Saturday.

“The most important thing is the 90 minutes he played, where he felt good and played with confidence, without worrying about his injury,” Miami manager Tata Martino said after the game, according to an interpretation by the Charlotte Observer.

Lionel Messi was spotted boarding a flight to Charlotte with his Inter Miami teammates on Friday

The 36-year-old Messi attended the Herons’ 2-2 home draw against Charlotte on Wednesday

‘Sometimes your head plays tricks on you after injuries. … We’ll see if he’s ready to play on Saturday.”

The uncertainty puts Charlotte (11/9/13, 40 points) in a special position ahead of a must-win game to have any hope of clinching one of the Eastern Conference’s nine postseason spots.

The Crown enter the weekend as one of four teams tied for ninth spot, but with Chicago and New York City FC playing each other on Saturday, one of the two is guaranteed to move to 41 points or better.

Charlotte will rue having to give back two late leads in their 2-2 draw at Florida, but they should have top scorer Karol Swiderski available to start after he came off the bench on Wednesday having played for Poland a day earlier .

Messi’s return to MLS comes after he scored twice against Peru for Argentina in a 2-0 win on Tuesday

Charlotte boss Christian Lattanzio is not speculating on whether Messi will play, at least not publicly.

“When he plays, he plays,” Lattanzio said. “And we have to deal with playing against all the players they have. We have to focus on ourselves and play our game.

“And we also have our supporters on our side and we hope that they will really get behind the boys, as they always do.”