Lionel Messi continued his recovery process in Florida ahead of FIFA Day, and the fact that he was able to make an appearance at the training camp was definitely a positive sign for Inter Miami.
A week after suffering an injury in the match against Nashville, Messi remained in Florida to speed up his rehabilitation. This happened while the Argentine national team was concentrated in Philadelphia, located in the United States.
“Injury management is something that has to be done weekly, in addition to today’s absence. Taking advantage of the fact that we had a whole week to continuously evaluate him, we did it. There is no doubt that he has aspirations to reach a physical level that allows him to participate in the quarterfinals of the Concachampions. Consequently, anything that implies some type of risk is something we are not going to do,” said coach Gerardo Martino after his team defeated DC United 3-1 without the contribution of their captain.
Messi is willing to take risks, which is why he is playing friendly matches against Argentina. And finally, La Pulga made the decision to stay in Miami to recover. In light of this, it is estimated that Messi will miss a total of 21 days of action, which includes the matches against New York Red Bull (which will take place on March 23) and New York City (which will take place on March 30).
Messi trains privately at Inter Miami
In order to be in optimal condition for the first leg of the Concachampions quarterfinals against Rayados de Monterrey, Leo began his recovery process when the Argentine national team was in Philadelphia. This was in order to ensure that he was healthy enough to play. The Inter Miami gym was the place where Messi participated in recovery activities on Tuesday. Also, on Wednesday, the tenth player, who was not accompanied by the rest of his teammates, went out on the field for a warm-up walk. It is encouraging for Inter Miami to see that Messi’s recovery process is progressing, as this indicates that he is improving.
Martino will have to prepare the starting eleven for Inter Miami’s next match in Major League Soccer (MLS) with the aim of keeping the team in first place, despite the fact that there will be a large number of absences. Among the players who have suffered injuries are Messi, Franco Negri, Ian Fray, Benjamín Cremaschi, Facundo Farias and Robbie Robinson. Leonardo Campana and Nicolás Freire, on the other hand, are being treated with distrust due to the numerous surprises.
In addition to being absent due to physical problems, Martino cannot count on those who have been called up to the senior team on this occasion.
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These players include Diego Gomez (Paraguay), Federico Redondo (Argentina U23), Shane Borgelin (Haiti), David Ruiz (Honduras) and Drake Callender (United States of America).