Inter Miami head coach Gerardo "Tata" Martino said Friday that Lionel Messi will soon be ready to join the team for training and insisted he will return to the field before the end of the MLS regular season.
Messi has been sidelined with an ankle ligament injury since exiting the pitch at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, in the July 14 Copa América final between Argentina and Colombia. He missed Miami's entire 2024 Leagues Cup campaign with the right ankle problem and looks set to sit out the next few MLS regular-season matches as well.
The forward was also omitted from Argentina's national team roster for the September round of World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Colombia.
Speaking at a news conference Friday, Martino denied that the injury was more serious than initially anticipated, saying that Messi's progress more or less lines up with what the team forecasted.
"He is not training with the group. But yes, he is already out on the field and working with the physical trainers," Martino said. "He is developing well, it was foreseeable that he would not be with Argentina because he is not yet in a position to play, but we continue to see him develop. There is no estimate, because you are already starting to see how you feel as you add training on the field."
Martino revealed Messi is expected to be back before playoffs begin in the last week of October.
"The work is planned by the medical part with the physical trainers. But yes, he returns before the end of the regular season," he said.
"I wouldn't be able to give an approximate number of days that he returns to training but it is not a situation that is too far away. There is a part of the injuries that have to do with the physical and there is a part of the injuries that has to do with the mental, so we have to overcome them both ways and I think that he is going through that process.
"He is feeling better and better, he has been working in the field for three or four days now. We cannot give time because we do not know and it would be speculating about something that may not be possible to do, but it is close."
Inter Miami are first in the Eastern Conference with 53 points in 25 games and are expected to clinch a playoff spot this weekend against FC Cincinnati. Even if Miami loses the game on Saturday at Chase Stadium, eight different result combinations would also propel them to the postseason.
The 2024 playoffs might be the last time Jordi Alba, Messi, Luis Suárez and Sergio Busquets share the field while wearing Miami colors. Suárez's contract expires at the end of the 2024 season, while the team would need to activate Alba's optional extra year to have him play with the team next season.
There are no conversations [for negotiations]," Martino said of the prospect of extensions. "But obviously the interest part is there. What has to be shaped is precisely MLS. With the restrictions it has, it is not a league where one can express oneself only by showing interest. I don't know if this is the right moment because we are in the final stretch and we have to think that in three months everything will be over."
There are nine games left in the regular season before playoffs begin on Oct. 26.