Barcelona play down Messi injury

Barcelona have played down reports of a possible injury to Lionel Messi ahead of the return of LaLiga.

The Argentine attacker missed training on Wednesday amid claims by Catalan station TV3 that he has a problem with his adductor and could be a doubt for the team’s trip to Mallorca on June 13.

Barca sources said Messi’s absence from the group session was merely part of his specially tailored training programme after over two months of inactivity due to coronavirus.

At the moment, he Catalan club are “calm” and insist the captain undertook recovery work in the gym on Wednesday, although Standard Sport understands he did take a knock in Tuesday’s session.

There is no training on Thursday as Barcelona’s players are given the day off, with all eyes set to be on Friday to see whether Messi is present after his absence on Wednesday.

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Quique Setien’s side lead LaLiga by two points from Real Madrid with 11 rounds remaining, but face Mallorca and Leganes in the space of 72 hours as they return to action later this month and Messi will be key to their hopes of winning the title.