Now 36 years old and in the twilight of his career, Lionel Messi has proven he can still perform to close to his best as he tears Major League Soccer to shreds with his new club Inter Miami.
With age, however, comes a greater attention to his match fitness, and Inter Miami will be overly cautious with their superstar.
That was evident as Messi, who had already been rested on a number of occasions over the past week, was withdrawn in the 37th minute of Inter Miami's eventual 4-0 win over Toronto FC on September 20. It's the Argentinian's first real injury bout with the American club, as he looked frustrated exiting the pitch.
While Inter Miami head coach Gerardo Martino downplayed the injury, calling it "fatigue" and indicating there were no signs of a muscle problem as of yet, it still called into question Messi's ability to remain fully fit amidst a brutally clogged fixture schedule towards the end of the MLS season.
Lionel Messi has been incredibly resilient throughout his long and illustrious football journey, but even the most durable players will inevitably suffer their fair share of injuries over the course of such a career.
At the beginning of his career, Messi appeared to have issues with his hamstring, especially on his favored left foot, as a number of thigh injuries sidelined him for long stretches during the first five years of his career at Barcelona.
Since the start of 2016, however, he has been exceedingly injury averse, avoiding serious knocks at an incredible rate and managing to stay fit to log significant minutes for both club and country.
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