feature-image

Reuters

feature-image

Reuters

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) – Lionel Messi has passed a kidney stone which ruled him out of their Club World Cup semi-final and Barcelona will now decide whether he will be fit for the final, the Spanish sports daily AS said on Friday.

Watch What’s Trending Now!

The Argentina forward was ruled out of Thursday’s 3-0 win over Guangzhou Evergrande at the last minute because the club said he was suffering from renal colic, a condition associated with kidney stones.

ADVERTISEMENT

The sports daily AS said on its website that Messi had endured another “bad night” but had passed the stone which was causing him pain. The club said he had missed training on Friday but did not give any further details.

Messi is battling to be fit for Sunday’s final against River Plate, which would be only the second time in his career that he has played against an Argentine team.

ADVERTISEMENT

Brazilian forward Neymar also missed Thursday’s match after suffering a small strain in an adductor muscle before a Champions League match against Bayer Leverkusen last week. Barca said he continued rehabilitation work.

Barca are runaway favourites to win the tournament for a third time since it started in 2005.

ADVERTISEMENT

(Writing by Brian Homewood; editing by Justin Palmer)

Share this with a friend:

Link Copied!

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Written by

author-image

Dhruv George

14,839 Articles

Dhruv George is EssentiallySports’ foremost authority on motorsport and a founding member of the outlet’s NASCAR desk. A Journalism graduate fluent in English and French, he brings over eight years of motorsports journalism experience covering everything from high-octane NASCAR battles to the finesse of Formula 1 and MotoGP. His extensive paddock access has earned him exclusive interviews with top names such as Know more

ADVERTISEMENT