An hour and a half before the opening whistle at the Hernando Siles stadium, the news arrived that caused a mix of surprise and disappointment among both Argentine and Bolivian fans. Lionel Messi not only did not start in La Paz, but he did not directly make the team as one of the substitutes, even though he watched the game from the bench.
Leo always surprises. Whether with a dribble, a great goal from a free kick, a pinpoint pass or a simple gesture of humility. He also did it on this trip to 3,600 meters in La Paz with the Argentine National Team for the second date of the Qualifiers heading to 2026.
Messi knew that there was a possibility of not being there, he had the opportunity to get off the plane after beating Ecuador with his brilliant finish. However, he chose to be there to try to get there, although it was not possible. "He wasn't ready to play. Yesterday he tried and he didn't feel comfortable. We didn't want to risk it," Scaloni explained after the National Team's 3-0 defeat against Bolivia.
It was strange to see the albiceleste without its captain, the leader who led Argentina to glory in Qatar 2022. A lot of expectations had been generated here, to the point that many Bolivian fans stated in the previous match that they supported Argentina mainly for the love of the team. rosarino. And the disappointment of finding out that they would not be able to see him on the pitch broke many hearts.
The emotion felt around Messi was so great that some fans even got confused when at the end of the match Ángel Correa entered with the number 10 shirt. From the stands you could hear "Meeeessi, Meeeessi...", and some were distracted. They pointed their cell phones towards the field to record the "historic" moment.
Why wasn't Messi even considered to be among the substitutes? The chances of seeing him play, at least for a while, existed. But Leo himself did not feel one hundred percent physically. He had a significant workload of matches on his back in the last two months with an average of one match every four days.
The first alarm was his departure with a few minutes remaining at the Monumental. "He was a little tired," Messi himself said. "He felt something and asked for the change," Scaloni added. In fact, the next day they did medical tests, but the images did not detect any injuries.
It is the discomfort in the back of the left leg that reappears from time to time, especially when it is overloaded with matches. What Clarín found out is that he traveled with the idea of being able to play and that is why he regulated the loads in the rehearsals in Ezeiza. However, in Monday's practice at The Strongest grounds he moved little or nothing again, and late into the night the balance was already leaning more towards the side of seeing him from the outside.
In another time, La Pulga could have decided to remain disaffected beforehand, but his role as leader was stronger and he wanted to be there at all costs, even if that meant missing his son Mateo's birthday.
Ángel Di María, his friend, was the one who had to replace him on the field and also with the ribbon on his arm. The other Angel, Correa, was responsible for taking care of number 10. And people confused him with the original 10.
Messi's last absence in Argentina for official matches was on February 1, 2022, at home against Colombia at the Mario Alberto Kempes in Córdoba. It was a 1-0 victory with a goal from Lautaro Martínez. He had not been in the previous game either, in the 2-1 victory on the visit to Chile. In those days, Leo had been recovering from the consequences of the coronavirus that had affected him at the beginning of that year.
