Argentina's Messi trains but avoids ball
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-06-16 09:18
HERZOGENAURACH, Germany, June 15 - Argentina's Lionel Messi trained with
his country's World Cup squad on Thursday but avoided kicking the ball while
recovering from a slight foot injury.
The gifted teenager, tipped for big things at the tournament, hurt his left
foot in a practice game earlier in the week although the news only came out on
Wednesday night.
"The other day in training he suffered a very small problem that has nothing
to do with the prior (injury)," coach Jose Pekerman said, referring to the thigh
injury Messi sustained playing for Barcelona three months ago.
"It was a knock and we decided he should not train yesterday (Wednesday),"
Pekerman told a news conference when he named his team for Friday's second Group
C match against Serbia & Montenegro. Wednesday's practice was behind closed
doors.
"Today, he got up without feeling any pain. If all goes well he will be on
the bench tomorrow," added pekerman a few hours before the team's scheduled
flight to Dortmund where they are due to take a coach to Gelsenkirchen.
Messi warmed up with 21 other members of Pekerman's squad before the rest of
them did ball exercises.
Carlos Tevez, another of Argentina's talented bench when they beat Ivory
Coast 2-1 in their Group C opener in Hamburg on Saturday, was missing with a
stomach ailment.
"He vomited, a stomach problem, maybe partly to do with the heat," Pekerman
said. "As a precaution we decided he should not go out in the sun today."
One of the most feared injuries in football is a broken bone in the foot,
like the metatarsal injury suffered by England's Wayne Rooney in April which has
delayed his World Cup debut.
Messi, who has fully recovered from the thigh injury that prevented him from
playing for Barcelona from the Champions League quarter-finals until the end of
the Spanish season, also has yet to take his World Cup bow.
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