Lionel Messi has been out of action since injuring his right ankle in the 2024 Copa América final on July 14. He rejoined group training with Inter Miami late last month, and due to a break for ongoing World Cup qualifiers, the team hasn’t played in two weeks, giving him additional time for recovery and conditioning.
Messi is now set to rejoin Inter Milan after a two-month injury recovery against Philadelphia in the MLS. “He’s fine,” Inter Miami coach Martino said. “Yesterday he returned to training. He is contemplated for tomorrow’s game and after training we will define the strategy for him, but he is available. We are going to once again have the best player in the world within the team so we are all happy about that situation.”
Messi also suffered from a sore throat earlier this week which prevented him from training but Martino confirmed that the World Cup winner was fully fit for the game against Philadelphia.
“Yes [there was concern], because it came together a bit with everything, the recovery of the ankle and just that throat condition he had, which prevented him from training,” Martino said.
“But he had been training quite well and we always thought that Philadelphia was the game to return to. Luckily, this lasted only one day. Yesterday he already trained normally; we are just simply taking into account what has happened to define the strategy for tomorrow.” he added.
Inter Miami leads the Eastern Conference table of the MLS with 59 points from 27 games and continues to be on track to set a new Major League Soccer record for the most points in a single regular season.
Lionel Messi’s return to action will also bring joy to his national team who succumbed to Colombia in their recent World Cup qualifier.
Lionel Messi misses Argentina’s defeat to Colombia in the World Cup Qualifier
Messi was also sidelined for Argentina’s recent World Cup qualifier defeat against Colombia at Roberto Melendez Metropolitan Stadium. Yerson Mosquera and James Rodriguez were on target for the hosts as they defeated Argentina 2-1 and climbed to the second spot in the table with 10 games to play. It was sweet revenge for Colombia, who had suffered a frustrating 1-0 defeat to Argentina in the disappointing Copa América final. This was also their first win over Argentina since 2019.
Argentina will be eager to return to winning ways in their next game against Venezuela in October and Lionel Scaloni will be hopeful that Messi will be available to play as their World Cup 2026 berth is far from guaranteed.
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Mohd Faisal Hakak is a sports author from Kashmir. He likes to keep tabs on the sporting world with a keen interest in football, motorsports, NBA, and other marquee sports. He is a science graduate from Islamia College Srinagar.
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