Enrique Offers Reassurances As Lionel Messi Faces Two Months On The Sidelines

FC Barcelona manager Luis Enrique urged his players to pull through together after teammate Lionel Messi suffered a serious injury against Las Palmas which is expected to keep him out of action until late November.

Messi suffered a tear in the internal collateral ligament of his left knee after colliding with Las Palmas defender Pedro Bigas in the third minute of the match. He was subsequently substituted and replaced by Munir El Haddadi 7 minutes later.

Having already lost Rafinha to a long term ACL injury earlier this month, Messi’s 2-month long absence will deal a huge blow to Luis Enrique and FC Barcelona. The Blaugrana were unable to bolster their squad in the summer on account of the transfer ban imposed upon them by FIFA and Messi’s injury will further strain their resources.

The creative and goal scoring genius of the four-time FIFA Ballon d’Or winner was instrumental in guiding FC Barcelona to a historic treble last season. His loss to injury will have unimaginable consequences for the club.

Enrique urges his players to “come through this together”

Speaking at a press conference after Barcelona’s 2-1 home win over Las Palmas, a sombre looking Enrique encouraged his players to “pull together and move forward”.

“Whenever there is an injury it is sad and unpleasant. If ita s an injury to Leo Messi, even more so…But we’re a team and Ia m convinced that wea ll overcome it,” Enrique was quoted as saying by the cluba s official website.

a Ita s a test and another point of motivation for our team. We get to see what wea re made of, and I have no doubt that wea ll be okay.”

“Wea re used to getting through tough times and now we have improve the things that are under our control. “Bar a will not play differently without Leo. There were things he could take care of himself and now, simply, we have to strengthen our play as a group.” Speaking about the game, Enrique said, “We played a pretty complete game and had lots of chances to put it away, but as has been happening recently, we havena t been generating too many occasions and thata s a cause for a bit of dissatisfaction, even more so when the other team scores on a fluke play. “That makes the game much tougher, especially the last five minutes.”

FC Barcelona players wish Messi a speedy recovery

Several FC Barcelona stars turned up after the match to send messages of support to Lionel Messi. Speaking to the club’s official website, Sergio Busquets said, “The win is important, but certainly the worst news is the injury to our best player. We’re having bad luck with injuries, and still can’t register players.” Defender Marc Bartra, who started for Barcelona against Las Palmas on Saturday, wished Messi “a speedy recovery.” Here are some other messages of support for Lionel Messi coming from his teammates and the club management.