“He’s fine,” Martino said when asked about the Argentine’s fitness. “Yesterday he returned to training. He is contemplated for tomorrow’s game and after training we will define the strategy for him, but he is available. We are going to once again have the best player in the world within the team so we are all happy about that situation.”
There was brief concern that Messi would be sidelined this weekend due to a minor illness he picked up earlier this week that saw him miss training on Wednesday, but the manager confirmed it’s a non-issue heading into the weekend.
“Yes [there was concern], because it came together a bit with everything, the recovery of the ankle and just that throat condition he had, which prevented him from training,” Martino said. “But he had been training quite well and we always thought that Philadelphia was the game to return to. Luckily, this lasted only one day. Yesterday he already trained normally, we are just simply taking into account what has happened to define the strategy for tomorrow.”