It has been reported that World Player of the Year Lionel Messi has been rested for up to 3 weeks due to a thigh injury he received during Barcelona's 2-0 victory over Almeria on Saturday.
In fact, the Argentine had placed the Catalans in front with a superb left-footed strike from 20 yards. However, it had to be replaced shortly and now certainly will miss Barca's Champions League trip to Celtic in midweek plus Saturday's home game against Valladolid.
A statement on the club's website declared that the tests carried out this morning have confirmed a small muscle injury in his right thigh. Additionally, the approximated time out is 2 to 3 weeks and hence he will miss the meetings this week against Celtic & Valladolid.
Fortunately, for the Spanish champions, after next weekend's match there is a break of two-weeks from the club duties, due to international commitments. On the other side, Messi is expected to fine for the trip to Osasuna on 19th October.
Meanwhile, Argentina manager Alejandro Sabella has summoned his captain for his team's remaining World Cup qualifiers. Anyway, as La Albiceleste has already reserved their berth for next year's finals, apparently Messi is likely to miss the meetings with Uruguay & Peru. Messi has been suffering from muscular problems since the end of last season.
In fact, the 26-year-old suffered a hamstring injury during Barca's Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain in April. Despite briefly coming back to action, he never truly revived from the trouble as he rested in the last month of the campaign.
In addition, he had a minor muscular injury in his left leg previously this season that compelled him to stay away from the first-leg of the Spanish Super Cup and skip the league trip to Malaga in August.
Anyway, he still scored 11 times in nine matches till date as Barcelona has excelled from the beginning to a Spanish league season.
