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Lionel Messi out for up to eight weeks

By on November 11, 2013

Lionel Messi will be out or up to two months with a torn hamstring

Lionel Messi will get to spend the holidays at home in Argentina after tests confirmed the Barcelona winger tore a muscle in his left thigh during Barca’s 4-1 La Liga win over Real Betis on Sunday. The four time Ballon d’Or winner immediately approached the substitutes bench after going down injured following a sprint towards the ball with Jose Caro in the eighteenth minute of the match and was substituted for Andreas Iniesta just three minutes later. Scans performed on Monday concluded the injury will sideline Messi for up to two months, making this one of the few below average beginnings to the season Messi has had since breaking into the Barcelona side in 2005 at the age of just nineteen.

Two minor injuries stopped Messi from playing in a few matches so far this season but didn’t stop the little genius from scoring fourteen goals in the sixteen appearances in all competitions.  Although the 26-year-old had been in contention to become La Liga’s all time top scorer at the end of the season and become the league’s top scorer for the third season running, these hopes seemed to be dashed until next season as Barca confirmed the the injury via their official Twitter feed.

The club also explained the injury in more detail in a statement released on their official website, reading: “The club’s medical services confirmed after tests this Monday morning that Leo Messi has a torn hamstring muscle in his left thigh and is expected to miss the next six to eight weeks.  The first phase of Messi’s recovery will be covered in Barcelona and he will then travel to Buenos Aires.

“This is Messi’s third injury this season.  On Aug. 21 in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup against Atletico Madrid, he suffered a bruised thigh which kept him out for a week and then against Almeria on Sept. 28, he suffered a small muscle tear in his right thigh which kept him on the sidelines for three weeks.”

Messi would sit out four Premier League matches, two Champions League ties again Ajax and Celtic, respectively, and both of Barcelona’s Copa del Rey Round of 32 matches against Segunda División B side Cartagena if he was to be sidelined for the rest of the year.  He wold also sit out Argentina’s international friendlies against Ecuador and Bosnia–Herzegovina, so it looks like the Argentine international will have a rather quite rest of the year.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.