(NLĐO) – With a right hamstring injury, Messi was absent from Inter Miami’s latest victory and was removed from Argentina’s tour against El Salvador and Costa Rica.

The Argentine team has removed Messi from the list of those called up for a series of friendly matches in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

“Argentina captain Lionel Messi will not be able to be in the squad for the friendly matches in the US due to a small hamstring injury in his right leg during InterMiami CF’s match against Nashville SC” – the team’s social network page this country shares.

In this match, Argentina’s superstar felt muscle discomfort right after starting the second half against Nashville on March 8. He immediately asked for a substitution.

This absence is understandable when the two matches at the end of March were both friendly and the results were not important. This is also a good thing for Messi as he has more time to recover and reach his best condition until the expected time in early April.

Argentina without Messi is sometimes an open opportunity for themselves. This helps coach Lionel Scaloni escape having to build a playing style around 1 person, to test a new attack that does not rely on M10 in two friendly matches against El Salvador and Costa Rica. These two matches are to prepare for the upcoming Copa America.

Messi was absent from the match against Bolivia in the second match of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in September 2023, but Argentina still maintained its form. They won 3-0 in the match at an altitude of 3,625 meters above sea level.

Looking more broadly, at the end of January 2022, Messi was also absent from the World Cup qualifying match when he was not on the call-up list. However, Argentina still won against Chile (2-1), Colombia (1-0).

In addition, Argentina will also not have the services of players Paulo Dybala, Exequiel Palacios and Marcos Senesi in this friendly match series.