Barcelona manager, Tito Vilanova, has moved to allay fear over the injury Lionel Messi picked up last night, in their final Champions League group games against Benfica.
The Argentine forward, was taken to the hospital, where a series of tests were carried out and they revealed the 25-year-old sustained a contusion on his left knee.
“It looks like it’s just a knock but they will be doing more tests to rule out other possibilities,” Vilanova told reporters.
“Messi was a bit worried initially, which is normal when you don’t know what it is. After the first tests by the doctors, he was calm, though.”
Vilanova also insisted that he did not regret sending on Messi, for the last 30 minutes of the game, as he tries to break Gerd Muller’s record of goals scored in a year.
“We talked about the possibility of him playing for 30 minutes. He’s a player who likes to play. It was part of his physical training program,” the head coach continued.
“We should not take him off every time we’re leading 3-0 lest he picks up an injury. We’ve never behaved this way. If I had to repeat the game, I’d make the same decision seeing as he can get injured at any moment.”
Barcelona’s next game is on Sunday against Real Betis.
Comments