Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde said his star player, Lionel Messi, was ready to be played in the Spanish La Liga match against Real Betis at the Camp Nou Stadium on Sunday (11/11).
Valverde made sure Messi had recovered from the injury he had suffered and began joining training with his teammates at the Blaugrana. The tactician did not rule out the possibility of playing him depending on fitness conditions ahead of the game to host Real Betis.
Not only Messi, the maintay defender of the Blaugrana, Samuel Umtiti was also declared recovery from injury and there is a possibility that he will be ready to play in the match against Real Betis. Coach Ernesto Valverde did not want to declare whether Messi was fit enough to play for 90 minutes against Betis but said the Argentine was no longer worried about relapsing.
“We will find out again before deciding that he [Messi] is ready to play for 90 minutes or not.”
“I think he has lost his fear of falling which has caused him more injuries. That is no longer in his mind,” Valverde was quoted as saying by the US.
Messi suffered an arm injury after falling due to a clash with Sevilla player Franco Vazquez. Messi’s position fell which caused him an injury. Barcelona themselves won 4-2 in the match. Although without Messi, Barcelona had no trouble because they were able to win in four of the five matched without the captain’s presence. But the presence of Messi is certainly expected to sharpen the attacking line of Barcelona and increase the morale of the other players.
“You can’t think: ‘I can’t fall in a strange way that causes me injury.’ I think he [Messi] can play. I’m sure he will be fine,” Valverde said.
Messi himself was carried off by Valverde when Barcelona traveled to the headquarters of Inter Milan in the Champions League. However, La Pulga was not played in the match which ended in a 1-1 draw.
“We understand that a player is theoretically playable, but of course there are times that you have to be really careful [to play players].”
“At other times we also knew that there was a high risk [playing players who had just recovered from injuries], but with the fact that they [Messi and Umtiti] had joined the training, I thought it was no longer a big risk,” Valverde said.
Messi was so important for Barcelona this season after making 12 goals and six assists from 12 appearances in all competitions.
