Barcelona forward Lionel Messi will have tests on Monday on a possible muscle injury sustained in Sunday`s 6-0 La Liga victory at home to Athletic Bilbao, coach Luis Enrique said.<\/p>\n
Messi, who scored Barca`s opening goal from the penalty spot, was replaced by Arda Turan at halftime at the Nou Camp and Luis Enrique told a news conference he had taken the decision as a precaution.<\/p>\n
The Argentina forward and FIFA Ballon d`Or holder missed two months late last year with a knee injury but has looked close to his best in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
“Tomorrow tests will be conducted, he has some mild muscle fatigue,” Luis Enrique told a news conference.<\/p>\n
“There was no sense in taking risks,” added the former Barca and Spain midfielder. “I don`t like to risk anyone, least of all Messi.”<\/p>\n
Barca`s Spain fullback Jordi Alba also had to come off in the second half after sustaining what looked like a hamstring strain when lunging for the ball.<\/p>\n
Second-placed Barca, who are two points behind leaders Atletico Madrid with a game in hand, play at Bilbao in the first leg of their King`s Cup quarter-final on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Barca beat Bilbao 3-1 in last year`s final and the return is at the Nou Camp a week later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barcelona forward Lionel Messi will have tests on Monday on a possible muscle injury sustained in Sunday`s 6-0 La Liga victory at home to Athletic Bilbao, coach Luis Enrique said. Messi, who scored Barca`s opening goal from the penalty spot, was replaced by Arda Turan at halftime at the Nou Camp and Luis Enrique told a news conference he had taken the decision as a precaution. The Argentina forward and FIFA Ballon d`Or holder missed two months late last year with a knee injury but has looked close to his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1776,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions\/1776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}