Lionel Messi sat out Inter Miami’s Sunday match against Montreal, and the team’s stated reason was simple: “rest.”
The rationale is also simple: Messi played Thursday, and will play again Wednesday in the most significant of Miami’s four competitions, the Concacaf Champions Cup.
Each of its 34 MLS regular-season games, on the other hand, is relatively insignificant. Inter only needs to win around 13 of them to reach the playoffs. (Charlotte qualified for last year’s playoffs with 10 wins.)
Miami, the most talented team in MLS history, shouldn’t have trouble hitting that laughably low benchmark.
Its 2024 season, then, will be defined by up to 20 games in three other competitions: The CCC, the mid-summer Leagues Cup and mid-autumn MLS playoffs.
Those are the 20 games for which Miami wants and needs Messi. The Argentine, for his part, also wants to peak at this summer’s Copa América. That international tournament, a 16-team Pan-American rumble, is almost certainly his priority. He has also reportedly had discussions about competing with Argentina at the Paris Olympics.
Between Inter Miami and Argentina, there are, technically, up to 83 games on Messi’s 2024 calendar. That includes the Olympics, where his participation remains uncertain; and MLS games that overlap with national team duty. The truer maximum is likely around 68. But still, 68 is far too many.
Inter Miami knows this. Head coach Tata Martino knows this. Ever since the very first day of preseason, Martino has spoken consistently about moderating Messi and his other aging stars. They will play “most games,” he promised. But “we’re obligated to have a healthy team that can carry us through an entire season,” he said.
So it was, and is, inevitable that he would regulate his NBA-style superteam with NBA-style load management.
It’s unclear whether the physical toll of early-season games has affected Miami’s plans. Messi struggled with a minor adductor injury during preseason. By the end of Inter’s globetrotting tour, he also admitted to being “a little tired from all this travel.”
Then there’s the hamstring problem that has nagged him intermittently for years, and sidelined him for six weeks last fall. An athletic trainer was seen…