Barcelona suffers a huge setback as Lionel Messi has been ruled out of the Champions League clash against Manchester United.
Barcelona suffer a massive setback in their pursuit for Champions League glory this season.
Lionel Messi has been ruled out for the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal game against Manchester United.
The Argentine superstar suffered an injury during the training session on Monday as the Barca squad assembled for the first time since their win over Espanyol in the league’s Catalan derby.
The news comes as a huge boost for Manchester United, however, who faced their own injury crisis during the round-of-16 against PSG. 10 first-team stars missed the second leg of the tie, but Solskjaer’s men pulled an emphatic comeback to beat the French side 3-1 at the Parc des Princes.
Lionel Messi injured:
Messi suffered an injury during the international break with Argentina, which forced him to miss Argentina’s second friendly against Morocco. However, he made a comeback in the game against Espanyol, where he scored a brilliant panenka free-kick.
As Barcelona squad reassembled for the training sessions for the first time on Monday, the Barcelona captain aggravated the injury. Lionel Messi left the training and will be put under rehabilitation.
The club’s conditioning coach stated that the injury is likely to rule him out for two weeks, which also suggests that the Barca star could miss the second leg against Manchester United as well.
“He’ll definitely miss the first leg. Messi has aggravated the pubic bone injury, and we believe that the area has been put under excessive strain,” Edu Pons, the conditioning coach, said.
While Lionel Messi was unavailable for comments, the club manager Ernesto Valverde stated that the players need to regroup more than ever.
“It’s obviously a big blow. Messi is the best player in the world, but we have to regroup and put it behind us,” Valverde said. “The things Messi brings to the game are unmatchable, we all know it. It’s better for him to rest and come back stronger,” the manager added.
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Manchester United will face Barcelona on April 10. Today, however, is April 1, so don’t take this article too seriously.
