MONTREAL (AP) — Lionel Messi and Inter Miami had an injury scare Saturday night.
Messi, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner as the world’s best player, briefly left Inter Miami’s match at Montreal late in the first half after evidently having some sort of issue with his left knee.
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Messi was hurt in the 40th minute on a play near midfield. He was fouled by Montreal defender George Campbell and went down immediately, holding his knee and writhing in pain. Inter Miami’s medical staff went onto the field to treat Messi, who got up after about two minutes and walked to the Miami sideline.
Messi was not subbed out, which allowed him a chance to return moments later.
Inter Miami trailed 2-0 when Messi got hurt. Inter Miami cut the deficit to 2-1 shortly after Messi departed — Matías Rojas getting a goal off a free kick, a shot that Messi surely would have taken had he been in the match at the time. Messi rejoined play a couple minutes later and was on the field when Luis Suarez’s goal late in first-half stoppage time pulled Inter Miami into a 2-2 tie at intermission.
The match marked the first time Messi — who had scored in 31 countries entering Saturday — played in Canada. Hundreds of fans greeted Inter Miami when the team arrived at its hotel on Friday night and Montreal, in part because of Messi joining Major League Soccer last summer, sold out its 15,000 season tickets for the first time since the club joined MLS in 2012.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
