Above, you can see Lionel Messi somehow, miraculously, not tearing every ligament in his ankle and knee. Less than a week later, Barcelona opted to rest him in a crucial La Liga game against Atlético Madrid. He wasn't named to their starting lineup, but was instead given 30 minutes off the bench.
Lionel Messi rested after playing on worst field ever, comes off the bench and scores winner
Barcelona didn’t start Messi against Atlético Madrid after he was asked to do truly ridiculous things on international duty, but he made enough of an impact in the 30 minutes that he did play.
On Tuesday, he played at AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys. The stadium’s main tenants play on turf, but Argentina and Mexico wanted to play on grass, so temporary grass was installed. It only had a day to set, which isn’t enough time at all, so the result was what you see above. The playing surface was downright dangerous.
Barca’s decision to sit Messi made sense, knowing what we do about these situations. Even if players get through these games without getting hurt, the effects on their bodies can linger and lead to injuries immediately afterwards. Stuart Holden played on grass laid over turf at the same stadium in 2013, then tore his ACL in the next match. We’ve seen similar affects on players who went on international duty and played on decent fields too -- Thibaut Courtois and Wayne Rooney came back from international duty without any injuries, but got hurt in their first training sessions back.
Playing two games on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean -- one on an unacceptably horrible pitch -- in a week in the middle of the club season is an insane thing to demand of Messi. It forced Barca to take precautions to make sure he doesn’t get hurt, in one of their most important games of the season.
They ended up getting lucky. Even though there was a giant Messi-sized hole in their lineup for most of their game against Atléti, their defense and Neymar did enough to keep the score within one goal until Messi came off the bench and did this.
Still, this situation never should have happened. Grass laid over turf is awful. International friendlies are awful. Something needs to be done about both.
See More:
