Injuries show Messi's 90-minute playing days are ending. But who will tell him? | OneFootball

As soon as Messi has returned, he is on the injury shelf again.

News broke Monday (from Fabrizio Romano, who else?) that the 37-year-old, eight-time Ballon d'Or winner suffered some sort of mid-section muscle injury during Inter Miami's 2-1 win over Atlanta United on Sunday evening. As a result, he'll miss Argentina's next two World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil over the next 10 days, and most likely MLS games in the weeks ahead as well, if history is any indication.

And it's becoming clearer every day that if Messi really wants to choose the timing of the end of his career on his heart's terms, rather than his body's, that he can no longer shoulder the every-game, every-minute load asked of him when "healthy."

What is far more unknown is whether anyone in his orbit has the courage to tell him this, or to face the rest of his team when after removing the world's greatest living player in the 65th minute of a draw or defeat.

Messi's technical ability is otherworldly, superhuman, whatever immortality-adjacent superlative you like to use. His availability, however, has always just above average. He rarely had long injury layoffs during the prime of his career, but he routinely had short breaks for minor niggles. That's not a slight against him at all -- he was far less of an injury liability than most players in their primes -- but just a reminder his flesh, unlike his ability to orient it around a football, is fallible.

If you take that knowledge and apply it to his current age (nearly 38) and the additional challenges of MLS travel, how managers have used him borders on malpractice. And the chronic muscle injury/fatigue issues he has experienced have been utterly predictable.

Messi has missed roughly half his club's competitive fixtures since his arrival in Miami in the summer of 2023, mostly on account of injury but sometimes due to international duty. Often those causes overlap, given the travel and additional wear representing Argentina at this age requires.

And yet, when you look at the match logs from when he is in the team, the minutes are staggering. Between club and country, Messi still made 33 appearances and 28 starts in 2024. He went the full 90 in 27 of those 28 starts. During his age-36 season. Often as the most important player on the field for either team.

It's lunacy. It's also completely understandable. His ability to influence matches -- even international matches -- remains elite. In the games he played in MLS last year, he both scored goals and contributed assists at a rate that would've seen MLS all-time records set had he played a full season.

And Messi's influence while on the field doesn't wane over 90 minutes. Given the freedom to pick and choose when he defends, he's just as capable of contributing the deciding play in the 90th as in the first. But that's a different statement than whether his body can take the accumulated toll of that kind of reliance at this age.

It's also worth noting his last two significant injuries have occurred in the second half of matches played after short rest (less than six days). His tearful exit came from the Copa America final came in the 66th minute. The injury he appeared to feel -- but play through -- in Atlanta occurred at a similar time in the match.

If this was any other player on earth at this time in his career, a minutes limit would be among the very first topics discussed upon his return. And that wouldn't mean lessening his overall influence on the squad. The aim would actually be to increase the overall minutes Messi plays by being smarter game to game. And he could still start more often than not.

But when facing multi-game weeks, capping his usage at 120 total minutes seems like a reasonable place to start. Or maybe simply making it clear he does not start multiple matches in one week. Or whatever rules and system you want to devise to have some sort of plan to lean on when the inherent pressure of competition makes a manager not want to.

The reality is Miami is good enough, even without Messi on the pitch to win, the majority of its MLS matches. And he may even find that his influence is exaggerated playing in shorter burts.

The Philadelphia Union exploited this possibility to exceptional effect with Ilsinho, who averaged in the neighborhood of 0.8 goal contributions per 90 minutes in three seasons used primarily as a super sub.

Messi is clearly still capable of more than just being a super sub. But the pattern is real at this point, and the time for. preemptive load management has arrived, rather than playing him for three 90 minute matches in seven days, then being forced to sit him for the next three games.

Otherwise, the next muscle injury might not be such a minor one. And the world's greatest living footballer may no longer have the choice of when to retire.