FC Barcelona have been handed a blow as their star player, Leo Messi has been ruled out for around 3 weeks. The Argentine picked up this injury in the 59th minute of Barcelona’s La Liga match against Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou on Wednesday night.
Lionel Messi was in of control the ball and was trying to find space while being marked closely by Atletico Madrid defender, Diego Godin when he picked up the injury. The Barcelona star was twisting and trying make a pass when he tweaked the inside of his groin and immediately began to hobble.
He was immediately subbed off by Luis Enrique and this turned out to be a killer blow. Barcelona conceded straight away as Gerard Pique got nutmegged and Mascherano fell flat on his face before Ángel Correa slotted past Ter Stegen.
Barcelona could not find a way past the Atletico Madrid defence in the last 30 minutes and were held on to a 1-1 draw. The points being shared resulted in the Catalan club’s first draw of the season. They are now 3 points behind league leaders, Real Madrid.
FC Barcelona tweeted right after the match and confirmed that Leo Messi will be out of action for the next 3 weeks. This means that he is likely to miss the matches against Sporting de Gijon, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Celta Vigo – all away from Camp Nou.
Luis Enrique looked devastated at losing Leo Messi for the next 3 weeks. He was informed of the situation immediately and he said “To lose Messi means that football loses. With Messi we are stronger, but we will continue being strong”.
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Leo Messi is undoubtedly Barcelona’s main player and a vital part of the word’s most feared forward trio which involves Luis Suarez and Neymar. The Argentine has scored 4 goals and assisted 2 in the first 5 LA Liga matches of the season. He also notched up a hat-trick in the opening group stage match of this season’s Champions League against Celtic whilst assisting Luis Suarez once in the 7-0 thrashing.
Messi is now expected to be back for Barcelona’s next home game which will take place on 15th of October against Deportivo La Coruna before they welcome Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City on the 19th of October.
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