You could hear a pin drop in the Nou Camp when Lionel Messu went down grabbing his knee late in Wednesday’s Champions League match with Benfica. When he was carried off on a stretcher Barcelona fans feared the worst.
But tests today revealed nothing worse than bruising and he was able to train in the Barca gym on Thursday morning.
“I’m fine. Luckily it was just a knock”, Messi said today.
“I feared the worst when I was on the stretcher, with the pain I was in; I thought I would be out for a long time”.
“I finished the move with a shot because I thought it was going to be the last ball I touched for a long time”, he added.
Messi is not expected to return to training until Saturday, did not rule out playing at the Villamarín on Sunday:
“I don’t know if I’ll be back on Sunday. It depends on how I progress”.
The best player in the world is only one goal behind equaling Gerd Mueller’s record of 85 goals in a calendar year.
If Messi misses Sunday’s match at Real Betis, he will have three opportunities, against Atletico Madrid and Real Valladolid in La Liga, and a Copa del Rey tie with Cordoba in December to break the record.
