Lionel Messi to Miss Barcelona's Season Opener in La Liga

The Argentine suffered a calf injury in his first training session back from his extended holidays following the summer's Copa America, and missed out on the preseason tour of the USA.

Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde has revealed Lionel Messi will not be risked during the club's La Liga opener against Athletic Bilbao on Friday night.

The Argentine suffered a calf injury in his first training session back from his extended holidays following the summer's Copa America, and missed out on the preseason tour of the USA. 

It is understood Messi engaged in a solo training session on Thursday, but he has not yet returned to first-team training, and as such he will not be risked against Athletic Bilbao at San Mames Stadium on Friday night.

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Speaking to the press, as quoted by Reuters, Valverde explained: “We never like to risk any players and much less someone like Leo."

The tactician continued: “He still hasn’t returned to training with the team and while we are happy with his progress, individual training is very different to playing a match. We are going to wait and see.”

Valverde was then asked about the ongoing transfer saga involving Neymar, but the Spaniard refused to get into it, instead using the question as an opportunity to bemoan the fact that the window is still open at all. 

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— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) August 15, 2019

“It’s inconvenient and it’s not logical. The normal thing would be that the team you start with is the same one that will compete for the whole season,” he quipped.

“Now we have two weeks until the transfer window shuts and you can’t breathe easily until then. I’m very happy with the squad I have at the moment but I don’t know what will happen next."

He added: “I am far removed from transfers and I’m focussing on the players I have for our first game. Neymar belongs to PSG and we’ll see what happens but I can’t say anything more about him.”