Leo Messi out for three weeks

Leo Messi will be out of action for around three weeks. The Argentine star tore a muscle in his groin in the second half of the game against Atlético Madrid at Camp Nou.

As such, Barça will be without the best player in the world for the three games that the blaugranes have before the next break for international fixtures: league games against Sporting Gijón and Celta Vigo and the game against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Champions League.

The injury came in the 55th minute of the game after a passage of play down the right hand side after which Messi was clearly in discomfort. A few minutes later the Barça number 10 left the field with the almost 90,000 strong crowd chanting his name. Arda Turan was the man who came on to replace him.

8 goals so far this season

Up until the game against Atlético, Messi had scored eight goals in 570 minutes this season in a Barça shirt. He scored against Uruguay for Argentina in their 1-0 win during the most recent international break. After that first game with the ‘albiceleste’, Messi returned to Barcelona due to problems with his groin in his left leg.