Lionel Messi's first start of the season ends in injury

OneFootball

Dan Burke·24 September 2019

Lionel Messi's first start of the season ends in injury

Lionel Messi had to be substituted at half-time of his first start of the 2019/20 season.

Barcelona2

Villarreal1

24/09/2019Full time

With Barcelona leading Villarreal 2-1 at Camp Nou, Messi was taken off and replaced by Ousmane Dembélé with what has been reported as a muscle injury.

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One substitution at the half. 🔺 @Dembouz 🔻 #Messi 🔵🔴 #ForçaBarça
– Tuesday, 24 September 2019

It is not yet known whether the injury is serious or the Argentine was merely withdrawn as a precaution.

Messi had been unable to start for Barça prior to Tuesday night as he recovered from a calf injury and all looked to be going swimmingly when he assisted Antoine Griezmann for the game’s opening goal.

But approximately 10 minutes before in the interval, the 32-year-old went down under no challenge and then had to receive treatment from the physios at the side of the pitch.

He played on for the remainder of the first half before he was taken off at the break.