
Inter Miami head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino has confirmed that Lionel Messi is ready to join the Argentina national team for the October international window for World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela and Bolivia.
Messi last played for Argentina in the 2024 Copa América, where he helped the team win the trophy before getting injured in the final against Colombia to his right ankle.
The forward was out for over two months, missing the international window in September.
Meanwhile, no official announcement has been made regarding Argentina’s October squad. On September 14, Messi played for Inter Miami again in a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Union. Since then, he has slowly found rhythm to feature for Argentina.
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Martino claims that Messi will perform at his best during the MLS playoffs.
Martino said:
“Obviously, Leo does not need to do differentiated physical work in training, but he needs a rhythm of competition, which gives me the idea that he is going to reach the playoffs very well because in addition to the games with us he has the games with the Argentinian national team. So we have high hopes that he will come into the play-offs in very good shape.”
“Obviously this week we are in a decisive position to try to be first overall. We will see how the games progress and what the needs are that we are having. It works well to prioritize the search for the objective first, especially because after these three games come the FIFA date, some players will obviously continue competing, but the rest of us have a week to recover, so we are going to prioritize the three games.”