Lionel Messi ‘has an old scar issue’, reveals Inter Miami coach Tata Martino – who says the star, 36, will be checked on every day in race against time for next week’s US Open Cup final
- Lionel Messi went away in the first half of Wednesday’s 4-0 win against Toronto
- He will miss the match against Orlando next weekend and then the final of the US Open Cup
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Lionel Messi is struggling with ‘an old scar problem’, according to Inter Miami coach Tata Martino after the star left injured in Wednesday’s 4-0 win over Toronto.
Messi will miss Sunday’s Major League Soccer match against Florida rivals Orlando City and faces a race against time to return for next Wednesday’s US Open Cup final against Houston Dynamo.
Coach Martino said Friday: “Leo has an old scar problem and we will continue to evaluate it day by day.”
Defender Jordi Alba, who followed Messi to Miami after his contract with Barcelona expired this summer, is struggling with muscle fatigue, Martino added. Both players were absent from training on Friday.
“Neither Alba nor he (Messi) will be considered for Sunday,” the coach said. ‘I haven’t spoken to Leo since the match, but it seems to me that his experience gives him the ability, even within a match, to know when to stop, when to say enough and when to take precautions.
Lionel Messi is struggling with ‘an old scar problem’, coach Tata Martino explains
Inter Miami coach Martino said Messi will be monitored daily ahead of the US Open Cup final
‘And it seems very sensible to me that he uses it more than ever at this point in his career, because we want to see Leo on the fields much more often and I have to help him.
‘For me it is good that he becomes aware that there are times when we have to stop.
“The annoying scar, I don’t know if it hurts, maybe it’s something much more medical.”
Miami enters Sunday’s game without two star players knowing that nothing less than a win is good enough as the team fights to make the postseason playoffs.
The team currently sits 13th out of 15 in the Eastern Conference standings and is five points behind Wayne Rooney’s DC United, occupying the ninth and final play-off position.
Orlando will be a tough opponent and currently sits second in the MLS Eastern Conference standings.
With Messi, Miami beat Orlando 3-1 in the Leagues Cup in August, but earlier in the season, before he joined, Miami lost 3-1 to City.
