Inter Miami missed Lionel Messi‘s services for the most time while taking a lamentable 6-0 beating from Al Nassr. He came on as an 83rd-minute substitute, as he reportedly struggled with a hamstring problem. Hence, Messi’s prospects for Inter Miami’s friendly against Hong Kong were also in Jeopardy. But the Herons boss Tata Martino has now played down La Pulga’s injury woes, guaranteeing his presence for the Hong Kong outing on Sunday.

Martino, however, has not said if Messi will start or play for how long. He said the Inter Miami captain’s playing time depends on the way pre-match training pans out for the player.

Martino expects Lionel Messi ‘to play as many minutes as possible’

The Inter Miami head coach dropped a positive Lionel Messi update while speaking to the press in Hong Kong. “We will evaluate each of the players because we have been playing a lot of preseason games. Our aspiration is that Leo can play as many minutes as possible, so we will determine how long he can play depending on what happens in tomorrow’s training session, but he will surely be on the field,” said Tata Martino, (translated by DeepL), as compiled by Diario AS.

As Martino and the entourage are yet to analyze Lionel Messi’s well-being, the skipper will probably come in as a substitute. Anyhow, the Herons’ boss won’t settle for a similar game plan he had for Messi in the Al Nassr game. That night he played the concluding seven minutes of the unfortunate match. While Martino’s quashing of La Pulga’s injury woes gives some relief to Inter Miami fans, the pre-season form has been alarming. The Argentine coach himself took responsibility for the team’s lackluster run.

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Tata Martino hopes to ‘reverse’ Inter Miami’s downward trend in Hong Kong

“We have the expectation of starting the MLS in a better way within 20 days. Although the team’s results and performance were not the best in Arabia, we hope to reverse them in Hong Kong,” Martino added. Inter Miami has played four matches in the pre-season tour and won none. They’ve lost three and drew one. The club’s most disappointing outings came during their Saudi Arabia tour to play in the Riyadh Season Cup.

Saudi Chief on Lionel Messi Getting Benched: “He was Afraid of Losing Against Al Nassr Without Cristiano Ronaldo”

It was a tightly fought match against Al Hilal, as Messi and Co. scored 3 goals against the former’s four. Both Messi and Luis Suarez found the net that night. But it was a Cristiano Ronaldo-less Al Nassr that crippled Tata Martino and Co. with 6 goals to no reply. Alluding to that loss, Martino said that conceding goals has become a problem.

He also added the team has to improve on many fronts after analyzing the defeat against the Riyadh-based club. Anyhow, let’s hope Lionel Messi’s guaranteed presence will give the Herons a much-needed boost in Hong Kong.

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