Lionel Messi is set to miss the rest of September’s football action and the Barcelona treble winning forward also could potentially miss much of October as well depending on how quickly the ligaments in his right ankle are able to heal.
Messi was injured last weekend against Atletico Madrid during a 2-1 victory. The Argentine scoring sensation went down in extra time after a tough challenge from Atletico defender Tomas Ujfalusi. The loss of Messi will be a crucial one for Barcelona considering their side has 3 matches in the next 9 days, one of which is against a Champions League opponent in FK Rubin Kazan.
And obviously when you discuss Lionel Messi the man’s importance to his team doesn’t even come into question. Messi has been the most valuable player in the league in recent memory and this season his 7 scores in 6 games is around where expected and the number of goals he has set up either with a perfect pass or banked shot off of the keeper or post is right around where it is expected to be as well. In other words the loss of Messi to the Barca side is huge and now new signee David Villa will have to rise to the challenge in Messi’s absence.
And even though Messi is set to miss at least two weeks of action and at least 3 to 4 games, the Barca team should be just fine without their star. Their first Champions League action they won 5-1 and they have stored up plenty of room for error by that debut total. They also will play two La Liga sides that are beatable despite not having Messi (Sporting Gijon and Bilbao) and even if Messi can’t play on Oct. 3rd against Mallorca then their next match isn’t until Oct 17th against first place Valencia.
And Messi should be more then ready to go by that date considering he will have had just under a month’s worth of rest from that painful ankle ligament injury suffered last weekend.
photo credit: prettyfriendship
