Shoken News:the manager of inter Miami announce the departure of……
Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino has denied Lionel Messi is suffering from any injury, saying the Argentine superstar’s absence in Sunday’s loss to CF Montréal was solely about giving him a rest.
The Herons fell 3-2 to the Canadian outfit at Chase Stadium, their first loss of the 2024 MLS season. It was the team’s second game in a span of five matches over just two weeks.
Messi was not in the matchday squad for the game, while Luis Suárez and Sergio Busquets only entered as second-half substitutes. The match was sandwiched between two midweek Concacaf Champions Cup games against Nashville, as Miami’s early-season fixture list piles up.
Messi took a heavy challenge from Nashville defender Lukas MacNaughton in last week’s Champions Cup game, and was listed as questionable for the Montréal match due to a shin injury.
But after the game against Montréal, Martino insisted that Messi’s absence had been planned before last week’s round-of-16 first leg against Nashville.
“We talked about it about a week ago and we agreed that this was the game where he had to rest, regardless of what happened in the game with Nashville,” Martino said of Messi.
“Ten days ago I was asked if we were going to rotate,” the coach added. “And today we rotated. There’s no other answer.”
