The injury problems of Lionel Messi continue as the Barcelona star has been ruled out for 6-8 weeks after tearing his left hamstring muscle during Barca’s 4-1 win over Real Betis on Sunday.
“The club’s medical services confirmed after tests this Monday morning that Leo Messi has a torn hamstring muscle in his left thigh and is expected to miss the next 6 to 8 weeks,” Barcelona said in a statement. “The first phase of Messi’s recovery will be covered in Barcelona and he will then travel to Buenos Aires,” it added.
This is the third time this season that Messi has been forced off with a muscular problem following hamstring and thigh injuries in his right leg earlier in the campaign. But after Sunday’s match Barcelona boss Gerardo Martino said that Messi’s injury troubles were not related.
“The injury to Messi doesn’t have anything to do with the previous ones because it is in the other leg”
Now I am not a doctor, but how can Martino say that the injuries are not related? If you go back to April of 2013, when Messi picked up his first hamstring injury against PSG in the Champions League, this is the fourth different time that he has suffered a muscle injury in his leg. That is too many for them not to be related.
Messi has not looked himself this season and the constant muscle injuries could be the problem. He has not scored in Barca’s last five league games something unprecedented during his Barça career. And it is not just the lack of goals. Messi is not impacting the game like he has in previous seasons.
With the signing of Neyamr, and Fabregas’s ability to play as a false number 9, Barcelona have no need to rush Messi back. They are through to the knockout stages of the Champions League and those games don’t begin until mid-February, 3 months from now.
There is also another factor in Messi’s health. Next summer is a World Cup year, and with a healthy Messi Argentina will be one of the favorites to lift the trophy in Brazil. Without Messi the likelihood of that happening is pretty slim.
