Messi’s future: Does Martino give him rest to return to the National Team?

Captain Lionel Messi would not play next Sunday for inter miamiwhen you should visit Los Angeles F.C.reigning champion of the MLSif the team led by Gerardo Martino beats Nashville tomorrow as a local, and in this way it would be preserved to join the Argentine national team that from Monday he will begin training in Ezeiza in view of the commitments of South American Qualifiers.

Because this requirement will not vary either by Qualifiers, since Argentina will have to face Thursday, September 7, next week, the first game against Ecuador at the River Plate stadium, starting at 9:00 p.m., but the following Tuesday, the 12th, from At 5:00 p.m., he will visit Bolivia, no less than at 3,650 meters above sea level in La Paz, which also implies an additional effort.

The mention of the possibility that Messi “misses three games” with Inter Miami as a result of the Qualifiers has to do precisely with the fact that Los Angeles can be added to the inevitable two, which will close the thirtieth date of the MLS and begin the Sunday at 23 in Argentina.

That schedule (the game will be ending around 1 on Monday, the day the National Team will start its few training sessions at the property that just bears the name of Messi) will cause “Lío” to arrive in Argentina from Los Angeles at the last minute of the day, a few hours after playing.

This would cause that, with the reservations of the case, he can only move a little with his teammates, without too many demands on Tuesday, a little more, but not too much on Wednesday. because it will be the day before to play with the Ecuadorians, and then jump back onto the field to face the first competition “for points” as world champion.

At 36, Messi is playing in the United States as if he were in his twenties.but the time to be preserved is now, and both Lionel Scaloni here and Gerardo Martino there know it.

And speaking of Scaloni, the time to make public the squad list for those first two Qualifying matches continues to be delayed, since Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez is being preserved in Aston Villa to be able to do so on Sunday at 10 in Argentina no less than against Liverpool due to a discomfort suffered in the first leg against Hibernian, from Scotland, for the Conference League.

Aston Villa won that game 5-0 as a visitor and Martínez left at halftime “as a precaution”, and for the same reason he will not be in the rematch next Thursday at home against the Scots.

In principle, then, “Dibu” will have no problems in being part of Scaloni’s call, which will come to light (it was already presented in due time and form before the 15-day deadline required by UEFA for the aforementioned of the clubs that are under its orbit) no later than this Thursday, and that will contain approximately 40 members, since the sub-23s that will play the Pre-Olympic will be added.

That team will be led by Javier Mascherano, who will only cite players from Argentine soccer, Brazil and the MLS, since the original idea of ​​also calling those who act in Europe as a kind of camouflage with a call to the largest of those who Because it is not a FIFA competition, they do not have the obligation to cede for pre-Olympic competitions, it was postponed to prevent this resource from ending up being harmful.

It is also that the “Jefecito” already knows several of the footballers who play in European teams and then intends to explore other places to prepare the ground to face a contest that will take place in Venezuela next January and will only classify the first two for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

In any case, Scaloni is willing to collaborate with this and is therefore open to quoting, along with those from his senior team, those that Mascherano deems necessary for this stage of preparation, among whom he will not take more than two players from the sub-23s that you choose from teams from the first division of Argentine soccer.

For the time being, and as part of this preparation, a friendly match against the Bolivian U-23 team is scheduled for Saturday, September 9, at the AFA stadium in Ezeiza.

Meanwhile, and returning to the world champion team, in the last hours a kinesiologist traveled to Spain to corroborate how a “myotendinous injury in the biceps femoris of the right leg” is evolving, as verified by a medical report from his club , Seville, after the defeat of the second date by 4 to 3 against Alavés.

This, which translated into plain football language is nothing more than a tear, is what Scaloni wants to know to see if he could reach at least the second game against the Bolivians or directly rule him out of the call.

That place as a starter would then be the exclusive property of Nicolás Tagliafico for this first window of the Qualifiers, who has also been having such good performances at Olympique Lyon, that Manchester United itself is behind him and would make an offer in the next few hours, before it is announced. close the book of passes in Europe next Thursday 31.

Meanwhile, and regarding the South American Qualifying matches, on this side of the Atlantic, the AFA has not yet officially announced when and how the sale of tickets for the match against the Ecuadorians will take place at the Más Monumental stadium, which will surely look complete. to see the selected world champion and his captain, Messi, more rested and refreshed if indeed he does not play on Sunday in Los Angeles.