Injured Lionel Messi skips Miami’s trip to Orlando

Lionel Messi will miss Inter Miami’s match against Orlando City on Wednesday night at Inter & Co Stadium, after suffering a knee injury during his team’s 3-2 MLS win over Montreal on Saturday.

Montreal defender George Campell fouled Messi in the 40th minute of the match, forcing the forward to go down while holding his knee. Miami’s medical team rushed to the scene before clearing Messi to play the rest of the game.

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Despite his participation throughout the 90 minutes, Miami assistant coach Javier Morales confirmed Messi “felt the knock” while doing regenerative work on Monday.

Robert Taylor replaced Messi Gerardo Martino’s starting XI.

“He suffered a hit to the knee on Saturday vs. Montréal, he continued playing through the end of the game and then iced it when finished,” Morales said. “He trained with the players yesterday who did regenerative work, with the bicycle and a bit of jogging on the field.”

After careful evaluation of Messi, the team decided against his participation in the game against Orlando. The forward previously missed a stretch of games for Miami early in the season, sitting out MLS and Concacaf Champions Cup action from March 13 to April 6 due to a muscle injury.

Since Messi made his debut, the team is 2-4-6 (WDL) in all competitions when he does not play and 15-7-3 when he does. Inter Miami currently leads the Eastern Conference table with 27 points in 13 games as Messi rewrites league history books with his 12 goals and 13 assists to start the season.