Messi’s Latest Injury Scare Is Worse News For MLS Than For Inter Miami

After Inter Miami’s 3-1 victory over Nashville SC in the Concacaf Champions Cup on Saturday night, Miami manager Tata Martino revealed his removal of Lionel Messi early in the second half did in fact owe to a leg injury injury, and that he probably would not play during Saturday’s league match at D.C. United.

Messi entered the game carrying the injury — picked up in the first meeting of the round-of-16 series with Nashville the week before — and had already sat out last weekend’s 3-2 league loss to CF Montreal.

Now he’s nearly certain to miss the next two MLS games, first at D.C. as an injury precaution and then the week after at the New York Red Bulls while he plays for Argentina during the March international window.

Looking ahead even further, it wouldn’t be surprising if he also sat out the March 30 home match against New York City FC, with Leg 1 of Miami’s Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal only three or four days later.

The timing isn’t great for Miami, amid the fixture congestion that goes with balancing league play and continental competition. But there’s plenty of time in the back half of the season for the Herons to recover from these absences and others that are expected when Messi plays for Argentina at this summer’s Copa America.

It’s probably worse news for Major League Soccer as a whole.

For starters, Messi will be missing what could be his team’s only trips to the cities with the two largest concentrations of international journalists in the United States. While there will definitely be bigger crowds to greet Messi at other venues than would have come to Audi Field or Red Bull Arena, it will be hard to surpass the global media exposure those two visits could have brought.

And his return to the injury shelf will also limit his live appearances on Apple TV, because the league’s worldwide streaming partner owns rights to all MLS regular season and playoff games as well as the Leagues Cup — but not the Concacaf Champions Cup.

Saturday’s game at D.C. is the kickoff of a weekend where all 14 MLS games are available for free in front of the MLS Season Pass paywall. And Messi’s absence is bound to have a blunting impact on the event intended to generate interest in the subscription service.

The episode is also reminder of just how little leverage Major League Soccer has in terms of maximizing the exposure of its most-prized asset.

Messi’s deal to join Inter Miami reportedly included an agreement with Apple TV that included a cut of the subscription fees Apple sold to the Season Pass service. But in his role as an Inter Miami player, the priority has always been trying to win trophies, regardless of who has the rights to the competition.

Because of Concacaf competition this season, in the United States Messi has played as many games on the FOX family of TV channels as on Season Pass — three each (One league game was shown on both). Absurdly on FOX’s part (and presumably because of contract obligations only) both of Messi’s Champions Cup games so far have been relegated to FS2.

The calculus is reasonable from Messi and Miami’s perspective: Winning the Concacaf Champions Cup would bring a place in the FIFA Club World Cup and $5 million in prize money. But anything that falls short of winning the whole tournament — to which FOX has the rights — probably isn’t in MLS’ best interests.

Just take last year, when Messi’s eagerness to compete in the U.S. Open Cup so soon after the winning the Leagues Cup contributed to the injury situation that limited him in league play down the stretch. The more cynical MLS observer might even suggest the league’s attempt to leave the tournament entirely in 2024 came about because it was an easier solution than telling Messi and Miami personally to not care about it because it didn’t include games shown on Season Pass.

The truth is more complicated, of course. But since Messi’s initial announcement that he was going to be joining Inter Miami, MLS has had no choice but to move to his drumbeat and not the other way around. And for this spring and summer, that may mean begrudgingly watching on as Messi puts league play on the backburner to make sure he’s healthy for the rest of Miami’s Champions Cup campaign and Argentina’s Copa America’s preparations.