Messi nears injury return as Argentina gear up for World Cup title defence

Lionel Messi is closing in on a return from a hamstring injury and could feature in Argentina’s World Cup warm-up matches in the United States. Coach Lionel Scaloni said the captain is recovering well ahead of the defending champions’ title defence.

New Delhi: Defending champions Argentina could receive a timely boost ahead of the World Cup, with captain Lionel Messi edging closer to a return from injury and potentially featuring in one of the team’s two warm-up matches in the United States.

Argentina’s coach Lionel Scaloni said on Friday that Messi’s recovery from left hamstring soreness is proceeding well, and the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner could get some game time against either Honduras on Saturday in College Station, Texas, or Iceland on Tuesday in Auburn, Alabama.

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“Leo is doing well,” Scaloni told reporters ahead of Argentina’s first friendly match.

“Leo trained for a portion (of Friday’s practice) with the group, which is important. He’s not fully segregated. He’s coming along. He could participate in the friendlies, get some playing time in these two friendlies. We’ll see if it’s this one (Saturday’s) or the next one. But he’s doing much better and that gives us peace of mind.”

The 38-year-old forward has not played since sustaining the injury in a match on May 24 for Inter Miami CF, the club’s final fixture before MLS suspended play for two months to accommodate the World Cup.

Messi goes into the tournament as one of its major draws after leading Argentina to the World Cup title in Qatar in 2022 where he also won the Golden Ball as the best player in the competition.

Despite the injury setback Messi has continued his productive season with Inter Miami where he has 12 goals and eight assists in 14 appearances. Earlier on Friday it was also revealed that he would play in the July 29 MLS All-Star game against top players from Liga MX in Charlotte.

Argentina captain has continued to build an extraordinary international career he is second to only Cristiano Ronaldo on the all-time international goalscoring list with 116 goals in 198 games.

Messi has the most World Cup appearances of any player with 26, one ahead of Germany legend Lothar Matthus. Both Messi and Ronaldo are set to make their sixth World Cup appearance which would be an all-time record.

Argentina will defend their title starting in Group J when they open against Algeria on June 16 in Kansas City then face Austria on June 22 and Jordan on June 27, all matches will be played in Arlington, Texas.

The update on Argentina’s talisman comes with just days left before the World Cup begins and the reigning champions’ talisman is now likely on course to be available when their campaign gets underway.