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How serious is Lionel Messi’s injury? It ultimately comes down to who you believe.
Messi was in street clothes for Inter Miami’s dramatic 1-1 draw with New York City FC, a game in which the Herons tied the score in stoppage time and came close to winning it all with an even later shot that hit the underside of the crossbar.
However, despite the wild finish to a game that was delayed by storms around DRV PNK Stadium, Messi remained the major talking point after the match.
A report from the Inter Miami Podcast (which is not affiliated with the team) said that Messi had “sustained a 2 [centimeter] hamstring tear, confirmed via MRI, likely shutting him down for the remainder of the MLS season.”
After the match, head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino dismissed the report as incorrect.
With the draw against New York City FC at DRV PNK Stadium, Inter Miami’s chances of getting a playoff spot look slim – but it’s not impossible. All teams have played between 30 and 32 games, meaning we are well and truly in the final stretch of the race.
The relentless storms overhead, in an act from God of pathetic fallacy, reflected the mood on the Miami soil after the draw with NYCFC. The Eastern Conference table does not make for pretty viewing for the fans in the pink shirts, as their side continue, without Messi, their increasingly hopeless task of sitting above that sacred playoff line.
However, with the Eastern Conference playoff race being a sloppy, slippery mess, Miami actually finished the night one point closer to the top nine than it was when play started. Of the seven teams vying for the final two spots still available, only one (the Chicago Fire) won on Saturday, with three suffering defeat elsewhere.
The bad news? The Herons sit four points behind ninth-place CF Montréal (who are ahead of D.C. United and the Fire on the games-won tiebreaker). With just four games to go, there’s just no room for error.
The good? Miami has a game in hand on Montréal and Chicago, and two on D.C., meaning that it will only take a couple of slip-ups from teams that seem immune to going on any sort of positive streak for Miami to have an opening.
To his side’s credit, Miami has been battling late in a series of close games, even as the club’s schedule remains relentless. The club’s draw with NYCFC was its fifth match in two weeks, a figure that will climb by two within the next six days. The Herons face a trip to Chicago to take on the Fire on Wednesday, followed by a Saturday home clash with Cincinnati.
