{"id":1473,"date":"2025-08-20T18:02:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T10:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/?p=1473"},"modified":"2025-08-20T18:02:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T10:02:33","slug":"miami-fearing-messi-blow-ahead-of-leagues-cup-quarter-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/20\/miami-fearing-messi-blow-ahead-of-leagues-cup-quarter-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami fearing Messi blow ahead of Leagues Cup quarter-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"632\" src=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-27.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1474\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-27.png 1000w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-27-300x190.png 300w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-27-768x485.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Lionel Messi is battling to be fit for Inter Miami&#8217;s Leagues Cup quarter-final clash against Mexican side Tigres UANL on Wednesday, head coach Javier Mascherano revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Argentine superstar Messi, who has been struggling with muscular problems since early August, trained separately from his teammates on Tuesday as they prepared for their last-eight showdown with Tigres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Messi, 38, returned to Miami&#8217;s line-up on Saturday after a two-week absence, scoring a goal after coming on as a substitute in a 3-1 win over Los Angeles Galaxy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the World Cup winner looked to be in physical discomfort during his second-half appearance, raising doubts about his fitness for Miami&#8217;s campaign in the Leagues Cup, the cross-border club competition for teams from Major League Soccer and Mexico&#8217;s Liga-MX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miami coach Mascherano admitted on Tuesday that Messi&#8217;s fitness for the clash with Tigres was in doubt, but stopped short of ruling him out of contention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Leo didn&#8217;t train with the group; he trained separately,&#8221; Mascherano told a press conference in Fort Lauderdale. &#8220;He felt uncomfortable during the 45 minutes he played (on Saturday). We&#8217;ll see how he&#8217;s doing during the day and tomorrow, but he&#8217;s not ruled out,&#8221; Mascherano added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t tell you today if he&#8217;ll play because it depends a lot on how he feels.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Messi&#8217;s absence would be a blow to Miami&#8217;s hopes of regaining the Leagues Cup title they won in 2023 during the Argentine star&#8217;s fairytale first season in MLS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mascherano said Miami will face a stiff test against Tigres, the eight-time Mexican champions, describing them as &#8220;a team with a lot of offensive power.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The goal is to neutralise Tigres, be the protagonists, have the ball, and play the game at our pace,&#8221; Mascherano noted. &#8220;They&#8217;re a tough opponent, but we have the weapons to compete.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miami&#8217;s game with Tigres is one of four Leagues Cup quarter-finals set for Wednesday. Mexico&#8217;s Toluca face Orlando City before Los Angeles Galaxy host Pachuca, while the Seattle Sounders take on Puebla at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lionel Messi is battling to be fit for Inter Miami&#038;#821 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1475,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions\/1475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}