Argentine star Lionel Messi has just missed four games with Inter Miami and only came on as a substitute against Cincinnati, in which match he could do nothing to prevent the elimination of his team from the MLS playoffs.
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Thus, the Argentine star left for his national team’s training camp to face Paraguay next Thursday in the third matchday of the South American qualifying round of Conmebol for the 2026 World Cup, a match in which he might not start, in a decision of the Albiceleste coach, Lionel Scaloni, who also did not mention the options he is considering to open the match at the Monumental in Buenos Aires.
Argentina team news vs Paraguay
Lionel Messi’s amazing goal in Argentina training
Scaloni has a complicated task to choose the eventual replacement for Messi, and will have to decide between Julian Alvarez or Lautaro Martinez (or perhaps send them together), in the absence of Angel Di Maria due to injury playing behind the last line, where he could place the Fiorentina player Nico Gonzalez.
Messi is not fully fit
The main reason, as it happened against Bolivia in the last date of the Conmebol qualifying round, is that Messi is not fully fit, after suffering muscular discomfort last September 20 in the MLS match against Toronto.
After Paraguay, Argentina will travel to Lima to face Peru on Tuesday, October 17 and it is expected that the difficult customs of the National Stadium will be more complicated with Messi on the field and without major problems. But that remains to be seen.