The Argentine Football Association (AFA) confirmed that Messi is not on the Argentina team roster preparing for two friendly matches in the US against El Salvador and Costa Rica. The reason is because superstar number 10 suffered a hamstring injury in the recent match against Nashville.
AFA issued a notice: “Captain Messi cannot participate in two friendly matches in the US because of a hamstring injury in the match between Inter Miami and Nashville”.
According to the American press, Messi may be absent until the end of March. That means the Argentine player will also not be able to play in Inter Miami’s next two matches against New York City and New York Red Bull.
At the age of 37, Messi has many injuries. In the past few months alone, El Pulga has retired twice due to injury. The Argentine team does not risk the injury of superstar number 10. Instead, they need El Pulga to fight in the Copa America, instead of friendly matches.
Similar to Messi, C.Ronaldo is not on the Portugal team roster this time to prepare for a friendly match with Sweden. However, CR7 was not injured. Instead, coach Roberto Martinez wants to give young players the opportunity to test.
Along with C.Ronaldo, Diogo Dalot, Joao Cancelo, Danilo Pereira, Otavio, Ruben Neves, Vitinha and Joao Felix were also not called up. They have all been under stress at the club recently and need to rest.
