Messi may miss Barcelona's La Liga return due to injury

FC Barcelona is just 10 days away from resuming its 2019-20 La Liga campaign. But there's bad news for the Spanish League title defenders.

Reports suggest that Barca legend Lionel Messi has suffered an injury. The 32-year old Argentine is experiencing sharp pains in his right leg and the complications started at the end of Tuesday's club practice session.

Later, he underwent an MRI scan in order to determine the cause of the pain. According to reports, Messi might have suffered a micro-tear in his leg muscle.

If that report is correct, there is a high possibility that Messi might miss Barcelona's first encounter following the coronavirus lockdown.

On June 13, Barca will travel to Son Moix to take on Mallorca. Since the typical recovery period from such an injury is generally around 10 days, Messi might not be able to return to action just yet.

Messi was absent at Wednesday's session. According to the club, it was a precautionary measure to prevent him from further straining his calf muscle.

However, AS believes that Messi was absent in the training mainly because he has suffered a more serious injury that his club is not willing to reveal as of now.

FC Barcelona's Medical Services team will do their best to ensure that their biggest star is fit before June 13. Barca is preparing to commence a non-stop run of 11 matches in just five weeks. As a result, the entire team would be required to put in extraordinary efforts as far as their fitness is concerned. Barca manager Quique Setién would want his best man Messi to be match ready.

The six-time Ballon d'Or winner must stay on top of his fitness in order to successfully offer non-stop service to his club during the exhausting five-week period.

Right from the beginning of this season, Messi had been in-and-out of injury. When the 2019-20 season started, the team captain suffered a calf injury that later forced him to be sidelined for almost two months.

Although the new injury might not be as serious as fans are speculating, it still leaves him with less recovery time. What's more worrying is that given the busy schedule ahead, Messi faces the threat of getting injured once again as his club defends their league title.