FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA – MARCH 13: Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi (10) arrives before the game between Nashville SC and Inter Miami at Chase Stadium on March 13, 2024 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Photo by Thaddaeus McAdams/Getty Images)
Lionel Messi is coming back to Inter Miami's lineup, with the team saying his absence for a hamstring injury will end Saturday at home in an MLS match against the Colorado Rapids.
“He's back,” the team wrote in a social media post Friday.
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Messi has missed Inter Miami's last four games, including one Wednesday when the club wasted a 1-0 lead and lost 2-1 to Mexico’s Monterrey in the first leg of a CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal. Tensions boiled over after that physical game, with members of both teams — Messi included — involved in a postgame shouting match near the locker room area at Chase Stadium.
Inter Miami finished that game a man down, leading to Monterrey's comeback.
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“We know what those matches represent. They are played with intensity,” Inter Miami assistant coach Javi Morales said Friday. “But the truth is, the most important thing happened on the field. We played against a great rival. Yes, unfortunately when we went down to 10 players we did not maintain the result. But now we have to go to Monterrey and try to do it in the best way to be able to advance.”
Early Saturday, Monterrey confirmed that it lodged a complaint to CONCACAF about what transpired postgame. It isn't clear what, if any, sanctions Inter Miami could face.
“We have expressed to CONCACAF our official position on the unfortunate events that occurred in the locker room area after the match on Wednesday, April 3 in Miami,” the Mexican team said.
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The second leg of the Miami-Monterrey series is Wednesday. And Messi would figure to be available for that, given that he will be in the lineup on Saturday.
Messi hasn't played since March 13, and also missed Argentina’s exhibitions last month against El Salvador and Costa Rica. He trained with Miami on Friday.
“He's getting better every day,” Morales said.
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