Barcelona possible heading into the restart without its best player.
The fear of every Barcelona supporter could be coming true as its best player, Lionel Messi, is set to be a doubt for their match against Mallorca as LaLiga gets back underway.
According to Marca, Messi “suffered sharp pains in his right leg at the end of of Tuesday’s session and underwent an MRI scan to determine the cause.” They went on to report that the Argentine could have suffered a microtear which puts his availability in doubt.
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If that diagnosis is confirmed, it would put his recovery time at about 10 days which would put him at the limit in terms of fitness. It is a situation the club are going to have to monitor closely.
Largely in part because of the condensed schedule in which Barcelona are going to be playing out the rest of the season in a shorter number of days. Being without their best player right out of the gate is not how they wanted to get things back underway.
Now more than ever it seems, the Catalan side are more and more dependent on Messi to both create opportunities and finish them.
Being without Messi, even for one match, is going to be tricky for Barcelona. They are only two points ahead of Real Madrid and even one slip-up could cost them the league.
The saving grace in all of this is that the injury does not appear to be too severe if the report from the club is to be believed.
Messi’s injury comes a day after Barcelona said nothing was wrong.
The Argentine was training by himself in the gym earlier in the week. The club sent out a statement saying there was nothing to be concerned about. Evidently there was.
Despite reports coming out about his injury, according to Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona’s stance continues to be that he is fine, there is no injury and there still is nothing to be worried about.
Messi has been unlucky with injuries this season. He picked up one prior to the team’s pre-season tour in the United States. Initially, he was set to miss only the season opener but he wound up missing nearly two months.
If Messi is injured, they’re better off erring on the side of caution in order to not make the injury worse. While they do depend on him a lot, they should have enough quality to fend off Mallorca even if it is in their home stadium.