On Wednesday, Lionel Messi left Inter Miami’s match against Toronto FC before halftime due to an unidentified injury, with coach Gerardo Martino telling his Argentine skipper could skip next week’s US Open Cup final.
Messi was substituted by Robert Taylor in the 37th minute with the score tied at 0-0, taking off the skipper’s armband and giving it to DeAndre Yedlin.
Miami shrugged off the loss of the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner to move to a 4-0 victory, with Taylor scoring twice and Facundo Farias and Benjamin Cremaschi also reaching on the score sheet.
Messi, whose former Barcelona teammate Jordi Alba was also coerced to exit Wednesday’s match early due to injury, skipped Miami’s 5-2 defeat at Atlanta on Saturday due to fatigue and sat out Argentina’s game against Bolivia last week.
Martino said they would consider the injuries to Messi and Alba in the future days but added they would skip Sunday’s match against Orlando City and were in suspicion for the Cup final next Wednesday against Houston Dynamo.
“There is no possibility they will be there on Sunday. I know we have a final to play but they won’t go around the pitch if they can’t play,” said Martino.
The coach added that Messi had been taking an “old injury”.
“The scans he had with the national team, they didn’t demonstrate any injury. We still held him to be safe,” he added.
“We don’t believe he has a muscular injury. That’s also from a discussion I just had with him. But we have to continue being cautious. And we’ll look at it the next few days.”
