Inter Miami overcame concerns about Lionel Messi’s injury to bolster their Major League Soccer playoff aspirations with a commanding 4-0 triumph over Toronto FC on Wednesday.
Messi made his return to the starting lineup after missing Saturday’s 5-2 loss to Atlanta due to muscle fatigue but left the field in the 38th minute, clearly discomforted. His former Barcelona teammate, Spanish defender Jordi Alba, who had also sat out the Atlanta match, departed the game three minutes earlier due to an injury.
Miami’s head coach, Gerardo Martino, confirmed that both players will miss Sunday’s Florida derby against Orlando City and expressed uncertainty about their participation in next week’s US Open Cup final.
“We have to take it day by day, assess the doctor’s report, and make our decisions. There is no ‘chance’ that they will be available on Sunday,” he stated.
“I don’t think it’s anything new or bigger than what they had been having. It’s just fatigue, I don’t think there is a muscular injury,” he said, defending the decision to play them.
“Everything was in place for the players to play … There is no possibility (that they were pressured to play). If we made them play it was because they were fit to play”
“After talking to them, I don’t have the same pessimism I had when I had to take them out,” he said.
Despite the blow of losing their star and one of their most influential players, Miami swept aside the Eastern Conference’s bottom club with ease, Messi’s replacement Robert Taylor scoring twice after coming on.
Facundo Farias opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time with a blistering volley after Toronto keeper Tomas Romero had meekly palmed out a Noah Allen cross.
