The Argentine attacker of Paris Saint-Germain Lionel Messi will not be in the league game against Monaco on Saturday and will only train next Monday, on the eve of the decisive game in the round of 16 of the Champions League against Bayern Munich, the club announced this Friday.
According to the medical report, Messi suffered a hamstring injury during last Wednesday’s cup match against Olympique de Marseille.
“He will be cared for for 48 hours and his return to training is scheduled for Monday,” said PSG.
The club’s coach, Christophe Galtier, was optimistic about the possibility of counting on the world champion for the decisive first leg of the Champions League round of 16 against the Bavarian team, for whom he will no longer be able to count on France’s Kylian Mbappe.
“He suffers from muscle fatigue. Monday, the eve of the match against Bayern, he will resume training. I think that ‘uncertain’ can be put aside,” said the coach at the press conference prior to the match against Monaco.
Galtier indicated that they are not working with the hypothesis of losing Messi before Tuesday’s crucial match, although he acknowledged that without him the team will have to change the way they play against Monaco.
“We will have to play in a different way, have a more compact team to look for the quality of those who are there. Going to Monaco without Leo is a problem, but it is something normal in a season with so many games.” he said.
He believed that the Argentine is “the best technical weapon” the team has, as he has shown in recent matches, against Montpellier or Toulouse, but also in the first part of the season.
Ultimately, if Messi were unable to face Bayern, PSG would have to go into that decisive game without two of its stars, as Mbappé is recovering from an injury suffered at the beginning of this month that the club’s doctors say will require three weeks has. treatment recovery.
On his possible presence against Bayern, Galtier limited himself to recalling the medical report that spoke of a three-week absence and making sure that “the health of the footballer is the priority, especially since the season is still long”.
The coach acknowledged that the dressing room was “very upset” by Wednesday’s French Cup elimination against Marseille and that the players were still “shocked” the next day.
“Our job now is to get the team back. There’s no point in being angry. You have to work to correct mistakes,” said Galtier, who said they lost “too many individual duels” against Marseille.
The coach stated that the team now faces a difficult series of games as after Marseille on Wednesday, Monaco on Saturday and Bayern on Tuesday, they will face Lille, sixth in the table, before facing Marseille this time in the league .
“They are all very demanding rivals, who have put us coaches in a position to look for competitive teams and find the necessary physical freshness in such a difficult season as this one, where there has been a World Cup in the middle,” he said.
PSG lead the table with an eight-point margin over Marseille, but so far their performance has fallen this year, adding two defeats and one draw so far this year, in addition to eliminating the Cup.
Messi has become the team’s best player in recent matches, while Mbappé is the top scorer.
Source: El heraldo
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