Messi’s Latest Injury Scare Is Worse News For MLS Than For Inter Miami

Nashville SC v Inter Miami CF: Round Of 16 - Concacaf Champions Cup - Leg Two

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After Inter Miami’s 3-1 victory over Nashville SC in the Concacaf Champions Cup on Saturday night, Miami manager Tata Martino revealed his removal of Lionel Messi early in the second half did in fact owe to a leg injury injury, and that he probably would not play during Saturday’s league match at D.C. United.

Messi entered the game carrying the injury — picked up in the first meeting of the round-of-16 series with Nashville the week before — and had already sat out last weekend’s 3-2 league loss to CF Montreal.

Now he’s nearly certain to miss the next two MLS games, first at D.C. as an injury precaution and then the week after at the New York Red Bulls while he plays for Argentina during the March international window.

Looking ahead even further, it wouldn’t be surprising if he also sat out the March 30 home match against New York City FC, with Leg 1 of Miami’s Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal only three or four days later.

The timing isn’t great for Miami, amid the fixture congestion that goes with balancing league play and continental competition. But there’s plenty of time in the back half of the season for the Herons to recover from these absences and others that are expected when Messi plays for Argentina at this summer’s Copa America.

It’s probably worse news for Major League Soccer as a whole.

For starters, Messi will be missing what could be his team’s only trips to the cities with the two largest concentrations of international journalists in the United States. While there will definitely be bigger crowds to greet Messi at other venues than would have come to Audi Field or Red Bull Arena, it will be hard to surpass the global media exposure those two visits could have brought.

And his return to the injury shelf will also limit his live appearances on Apple TV, because the league’s worldwide streaming partner owns rights to all MLS regular season and playoff games as well as the Leagues Cup — but not the Concacaf Champions Cup.