THIRD MAJOR INJURY

Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi suffered the third major injury of the season, which will keep him out till January. This means that he is unlikely to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or award this season after having won the trophy four times in succession. The last two times that he suffered from injury this season, Messi has tried to get back to the pitch much earlier than expected. This is the reason for the player suffering subsequent problems according to his teammate Cesc Fabregas. He has recalled similar situation that happened to him when he was at Arsenal.

In order to prevent Messi from suffering another complication as a result of the latest injury, Fabregas has suggested that the Argentine superstar should take his time to take complete recovery before thinking about coming back to the team. Since he is one of the best players in the world, it is highly unlikely that Messi is going to lose his place anytime soon. The 26-year-old has played out any injuries for the last four years at the very highest level.

Prior to getting injured a poor run of five matches without a league role, which has not happened in recent years. Messi is expected to make his return to the first-team only after the winter break.

“[Messi] has to stop to take the time that he needs to emphasise his explosiveness. Something similar happened to me and I was badly affected. You believe you’re okay at first but you’re not. I was disappointed to miss out on some games but I know I’m at Barcelona and I will continue to grow. I spent the injury out of action and even spent half a year with the ordeal, which was not good; it was a very bad injury,” said Fabregas after the match.

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MESSI AND NEYMAR

Lionel Messi has said that his tuning with the Brazilian superstar Neymar is quite good.

Messi gave this statement after Barcelona’s huge win over Thailand in a pre-season fixture yesterday.

Both Messi and Neymar played for 45 minutes in that match and both of them managed to find the net. Messi did that a couple of times, while, Neymar did that once.

In the post match press conference, when Messi was asked about his relationship with Neymar, he said, “We haven’t spent that much time together so far, but, our relationship is quite good. We enjoy playing alongside each other and we are looking to win more and more matches for Barcelona this season.”

Barcelona has bought Neymar this summer from the Brazilian club Santos. The transfer fee hasn’t been disclosed yet by either of the two clubs, but, it is believed to be a big one.

Barca’s new manager, Gerardo Martino, also said after the match against Thailand that Messi and Neymar would form a very good pair.

Martino said, “They don’t have similar styles, but, the coordination between them was superb today. I think they would form a lethal pair.”

Barcelona has visited Asia after a gap of 3 years. The club has a great fan following in the biggest continent of the world.

Barcelona has to play one more match on this tour. That will be against Malaysian XI at Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. That would be the last opportunity for Martino to try out a few combinations before the start of La Liga.

Barcelona had become La Liga champions in the last season. They were terrific right through the league and had secured 100 points in 38 games.

In the upcoming La Liga, Barca will start its campaign against Levante at Camp Nou.

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CONFIDENCE MATTERS

Barcelona manager Tito Vilanova has said that he took the decision of leaving Lionel Messi on the bench due to the confidence in the rest of the team. Messi was on the substitutes bench for the second leg against Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final. It was a match that Barcelona lost 3-0, while the aggregate 7-0 loss was one of the heaviest defeats they have suffered in the history. This has put a lot of pressure on manager Vilanova, who has missed several months of action due to cancer treatment.

Vilanova took the gamble of playing Messi in the first leg at the Allianz Arena. It was a gamble that did not play dividends, as the team was convincingly beaten 4-0 with Messi largely being a passenger in the match. Strangely, Vilanova decided to use Messi in the weekend’s match against Athletic Bilbao. The Argentine star came on as a substitute in the match, which prompted suggestions that he may start against Bayern Munich. However, Vilanova said that he was not yet fully fit in order to start the match. There was a fear that he may aggravate the injury if he played against Bayern Munich.

There has been criticism of Barcelona for being over reliant on Lionel Messi.

“Leo played in Bilbao on Saturday because he felt better. He imprinted a change on the team but at the end of the game he felt some strange sensations. He trained this week, but he didn’t feel right. He is an explosive player and there was a risk he could tear his hamstring, so he couldn’t help the team in these conditions. All these years when we have played without Leo we have won games by small margins, but this year in the league we have won games 5-0 and 3-0 without him on the pitch,” said Vilanova.