Lionel Messi trained hard and everything returned to normal in the national team ahead of his World Cup debut

All the expectation there was in seeing the picture of Lionel Messi For the first time on Qatari soil, last Saturday it was overshadowed because the 10th took a surprise break away from his teammates. But in the penultimate match before this Tuesday’s world premiere against Saudi Arabia, the captain of the national team completed Sunday training behind closed doors on a par with the others and without problems. When in doubt, Leo is a fixture for his Lusail Stadium debut.

Messi’s situation over the weekend had aroused great intrigue because I hadn’t come straight out of the gym on Friday (like six other players) in the 15 minutes witnessed by the press. Then it was learned that later, without the media as witnesses, he left to complete his training.

The next day was scheduled to finally observe it. It only happened halfway through. Because Rosario’s man left the field of the Qatar University training ground late. And instead of facing the bulk of the team that was freaking out in the center circle, he went to outfield with the kinesiologist to do a light activation that was ramping up.

There has been a lot of speculation. However, clarion He was able to verify after a while that it was all about the regulation of energy and physical loads. Messi came from intense activity in recent weeks and his calf area was a bit overloaded. For this reason, with the agreement of the coaching staff, he was expected to train in this way.

Twenty-four hours later, the best in the world has carried out all the physical and tactical exercises without any problems and his participation in the first match of his fifth World Cup, barring unforeseen events between now and Tuesday, has been assured from the outset.

And the rest of the lineup? Scaloni, who also played Exequiel Palacios and Lisandro Martínez, has another test this Monday to decide which side eleven.

On Saturday, as La Pulga jogged with kinesiologist Luis García, the coach handed out orange bibs to ten outfield players: Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, Nicolás Otamendi, Marcos Acuña, Rodrigo De Paul, Leandro Paredes, Alexis Mac Allister, Angel Di Maria, Lautaro Martinez and Alejandro Gomez.

By chance – or not – you can put together a team, obviously not counting the goalkeeper, who could be the owner. You have to add Emiliano Martinez and think of Messi, of course, instead of the Papua.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery.