Messi out for Inter Miami vs. NYCFC Saturday, may return for Champions Cup next week

Lionel Messi will not play in the Inter Miami home game Saturday against New York City FC, but the hope is that he will be fit to make his return for the Champions Cup quarterfinal first leg against Mexican club Monterrey next Wednesday.

“Leo will not be available (for Saturday),” assistant coach Javi Morales said Friday morning. “He is working with the physios but will not be available because we are doing all we can to get him ready for next Wednesday. There is a possibility he will play in that game, that is what we are working for.”

Messi has not played since March 13. The team is undefeated in the five games Messi played and has lost two of the three without him, including the 4-0 loss on the road to New York Red Bulls last weekend.

Midfielder Fede Redondo will also miss the game Saturday and is expected to be out for eight weeks after suffering an injury to his left lateral collateral ligament, the team announced. Redondo was on national team duty with the Argentine Under-23 team last week.

“He was healthy when he left to go there, felt some pain while there, and we examined him upon his return and discovered this injury,” Morales said.

Although the team is looking forward to the Champions Cup matches against Monterrey, Morales and midfielder Julian Gressel stressed that the focus this weekend is on winning Saturday at home after the road loss last week.

Other than Messi and Redondo, Morales said he expects the regular starting lineup to play against NYCFC (7:30 p.m., AppleTV).

“This is going to be Tata’s decision, but I believe that after a whole week training together that there’s not going to be any issue about saving players for Wednesday,” Morales said. “The league is also important for us and we’re going to go with the strongest team.”

Miami got a defensive reinforcement this week with the addition of Argentine right back Marcelo “Chelo” Weigandt. He received his work visa on Friday and will be available to play Saturday.

Inter Miami slipped to second place in the Eastern Conference standings with the loss last weekend. Miami has three wins, two losses and a tie and leads the league with 13 goals. But the team has conceded nine goals, which has been a concern.

NYC is second-to-last in the East with one win, four losses, and just three goals. Two of those goals were scored by Santiago Rodriguez, a Uruguayan midfielder who surely will be motivated playing against Suarez.

Miami players had Sunday and Monday off, and according to Gressel, the mood in camp has been upbeat heading into the NYCFC game.

“We had a couple of days off, which I think we needed, especially after a tough defeat like that, it can kind of reset things,” Gressel said. “Honestly, the mood has been pretty good, refreshed in a sense. We know we got beat pretty bad in New York…but we’re looking ahead and trying to prepare for what’s to come knowing we have a couple of big weeks ahead.”

Inter Miami has four games over the next 12 days. There is the home game Saturday against NYCFC, the Champions Cup quarterfinal first leg at home against Monterrey on April 3, a home game against Colorado Rapids on April 6 and the road leg of the Champions Cup series at Monterrey on April 10.

Martino and his players are tasked with navigating the pressures of league play and cup play.

“Obviously, the Champions Cup game sticks out, right? It’s something we’re excited for to host Monterrey here and then go have a huge game there,” Gressel said. “It’s a big, big matchup. But we have a game (Saturday) that after having lost in the league, and not being in first place anymore, having one game more than everyone else, it is a game at home you want to win. We can’t forget about the league.”

Gressel said last year the team got itself into a hole it couldn’t get out of in the MLS standings, and they don’t want to repeat that mistake.

“I’ve learned that to be a top team, and be a Supporters Shield contender, you can’t lose back to back, especially at home,” he said. “That’s something we’re aware of. We want to get back to winning ways and get a good feeling for that Champions Cup matchup. You want to head out there with confidence, and obviously, the Red Bulls game didn’t give us confidence.”