Messi questionable, Alba out as Inter Miami begins crucial stretch Saturday vs. NYCFC
Inter Miami heads into the most crucial part of the MLS season with injured Lionel Messi’s availability in question, Jordi Alba ruled out indefinitely and a big (but not impossible) gap to make up in the race to the playoff line.
Messi, who has missed three of the past four games after aggravating an unspecified leg injury, is questionable for the home game Saturday against New York City FC. He went out to the training field later than the rest of the team Friday morning, just as the media viewing session ended, so it is unknown if he went through a full workout.
The Argentine star was in street clothes for the U.S. Open Cup final on Wednesday night, which Houston Dynamo won 2-1.
“We are taking it day-by-day,” said assistant coach Javier Morales. “We were trying up until the last moment to see if he could play some minutes in the (U.S. Open Cup) final but he couldn’t do it. At this point, it’s communication with the medical staff and, most important, with him to see how he’s feeling. He is going to train (Friday) and test it out and we will see if he’s available for Saturday, which is what we all want.”
Morales added that the decision to keep Messi out the U.S. Open Cup final was to prevent him from making the injury worse.
“Muscle injuries are tricky because you can think you’re fine, and then you play a game or go through training and you end up worse,” Morales said. “We knew it was a final, Leo wanted to play, we all wanted that, but he didn’t feel 100 percent. You don’t want to make an injury worse, and instead of missing one game have to miss a month. The idea is to have him healthy as long as possible.”
As for Alba, he is ruled out for Saturday as Morales confirmed the Spaniard has a hamstring injury that kept him out of the past two games and forced him to exit the Toronto game after 33 minutes.
“Jordi’s is a different situation, it’s a little longer [recovery] than Leo,” Morales said. “It’s a hamstring injury. He’ll definitely be out for this weekend.”
Inter Miami Playoff Scenario
Inter Miami is five points and five places behind NYCFC for the ninth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with two games in hand. Miami has 32 points, NYCFC has 37.
In recent years, it took 43 points to reach the ninth-place line. If that holds true, Miami needs 12 points from the final five games to get to the post-season, which leaves little room for error. The road ahead will not be easy.
In addition to the injuries to Messi and Alba, coach Tata Martino said Wednesday night that he felt his team was hitting a physical and mental wall after playing 16 games over 64 days between league matches and runs to the Leagues Cup and U.S. Open Cup finals.
“What I saw was a worn-out team. If this match went into extra time, the match we have on Saturday would have to be played by the coaching staff,” Martino said. “The reality is that we were eventually going to suffer the consequences of playing so many games. We’ve started feeling it.”
After going on a 12-game unbeaten streak with Messi, Inter Miami is 1-2-1 in the four games he missed.
NYCFC, meanwhile, is rested after six days off, and in good form, earning 11 points in the past five matches and outscoring opponents 8-1 during that stretch.
After the NYCFC game (7:30 p.m., Apple TV), Inter Miami heads to Chicago for a Wednesday night game against the Fire and then returns home three days later for an Oct. 7 game against FC Cincinnati, which has the league’s best record with 62 points. Cincinnati will be extra motivated to beat Miami after losing to the men in pink in a dramatic penalty kick shootout in the U.S. Open Cup semifinal.
Miami’s final two regular-season games are against Charlotte, at home Oct. 18 and on the road on artificial turf three days later. The 18th is during the FIFA international window, so Messi, if healthy by then, would likely be gone with Argentina. Several other Miami players are also likely to be called up for international duty that week.
“We lost Wednesday, and it hurt, but we have no time to mope because we have a big game Saturday,” said Jean Mota, who returns from a knee injury. “The league season is what’s left, and we want to collect wins and make the playoffs.”
This story was originally published September 29, 2023 at 2:51 PM.