Source - Messi not traveling with Inter Miami for game in Atlanta - ESPN

Inter Miami CF star Lionel Messi didn't travel with the team for Saturday's road game against Atlanta United FC, a source told ESPN Argentina.

Messi uncharacteristically left Argentina's World Cup qualifying win last week over Ecuador before the final whistle, and although he made Wednesday's trip to Bolívia, he was not named in coach Lionel Scaloni's 23-man squad for the 3-0 victory at La Paz's high altitude.

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Miami coach Gerardo Martino said early Friday that Messi is «fine» but he wanted to wait until after the last training before the game to make a decision about the star's availability against Atlanta.

«We will be careful with him because we have a lot of important games in a short span,» Martino said.

Miami's schedule was packed before the international break, and it has a quick turnaround before Wednesday's home match with Toronto FC. Messi will also have more World Cup qualifiers to navigate in October, with CONMEBOL qualifiers against Paraguay (Oct. 12) and Peru (Oct. 17).

Miami's games around that time would both be against Charlotte FC: at home on Oct. 18 and in North Carolina on Oct. 21 to close out the regular season.

«This is something that we knew would happen at some point, but that he would begin to get used to our needs, especially for seasons like this with a lot of matches,» Martino said in regard to the prospect of resting Messi more due to his schedule.

«Playing each match, 90 minutes each game, two to three days with travel in between would get difficult.»

Messi trained with the team Thursday and Friday, and although Atlanta plays on turf, the 36-year-old said in his lone news conference last month that he played on turf as a youth and wouldn't