Injured Lionel Messi Set To Miss Action Yet Again For Miami – News18

Lionel Messi was ruled out with injury again on Saturday, not named in Inter Miami’s squad for Saturday’s Major League Soccer clash with New York City FC, as he missed his third straight game.

Messi was substituted after 38 minutes of the team’s win over Toronto FC on September 20 but missed the following league game at Orlando and Wednesday’s US Open Cup defeat to Houston.

Prior to the Toronto game, the World Cup winner had skipped the away trip to Atlanta having also sat out Argentina’s World Cup qualifier in Bolivia.

READ: In Absence Of Lionel Messi, Inter Miami Lose U.S. Open Cup Final To Houston

Saturday’s game is a crucial one for Miami’s hopes of making the playoffs and they will also be without Messi’s former Barcelona team-mate Jordi Alba, who is out with a hamstring injury.

NYCFC currently occupy the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, sitting in ninth place, five points ahead of Miami but the Florida side have two games in hand.

Miami’s Argentine head coach Gerardo Martino said his team, who are also without right-back DeAndre Yedlin, had been unfortunate with injuries.

“Casualties are part of what can happen in a season but they hardly ever happen in the quantity and importance that we have, but we have to accept it,” he said.

Lately, without Messi and his former Barcelona team-mate Jordi Alba, Miami struggled to compete with an enterprising Houston who defeated defeated Inter Miami 2-1 to win the U.S. Open Cup

Miami had won the Leagues Cup last month with Messi prominently involved but they must now battle to make the Major League Soccer play-offs with uncertainty over their Argentine star’s fitness.

Houston coach Ben Olsen said his team had exploited the absence of Messi and Alba.

“We prepared all week for Messi and Alba and let’s be honest they are a different team (with them). I think they missed him and they missed Alba,” he said.

Lately, Major League Soccer teams’ ability to cope with the demands of new international competitions was under scrutiny after two games on this past Wednesday highlighted the consequences of a crowded schedule.

LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said, “I think we have done an incredible job to stay in all competitions very late, but our guys are depleted, our stadium ops is tired, everybody in the organization is tired.”

“Maybe this is too many games, or maybe we don’t have enough people to cover all these games,” added Cherundolo.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)