Martino: Lionel Messi will make Miami return before MLS playoffs - ESPN

Inter Miami head coach Gerardo «Tata» Martino said Friday that Lionel Messi will soon be ready to join the team for training and insisted he will return to the field before the end of the MLS regular season.

Messi has been sidelined with an ankle ligament injury since exiting the pitch at Hard Rock Stadium in the July 14 Copa América final between Argentina and Colombia. He missed Miami's entire 2024 Leagues Cup campaign with the right ankle problem and looks set to sit out the next few MLS regular-season matches as well.

The forward was also omitted from Argentina's national team roster for the September round of World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Colombia.

«No [the injury is not more serious than anticipated] the times are more or less there,» Martino said in a news conference on Friday.

«He is not training with the group. But yes, he is already out on the field and working with the physical trainers. He is developing well, it was foreseeable that he would not be with Argentina because he is not yet in a position to play, but we continue to see him develop. There is no estimate, because you are already starting to see how you feel as you add training on the field.»

Martino revealed Messi is expected to be back before playoffs begin in the last week of October.

«The work is planned by the medical part with the physical trainers. But yes, he returns before the end of the regular season,» he said.

«I wouldn't be able to give an approximate number of days that he returns to training but it is not a situation that is too far away. There is a part of the injuries that have to do with the physical and there is a part of the injuries that has to do with the mental, so we have to overcome them both ways and I think that he