{"id":23588,"date":"2026-02-19T14:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/19\/will-messi-play-big-question-mark-for-inter-miami-ahead-of-the-start-of-the-2026-mls-season\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T14:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:16:23","slug":"will-messi-play-big-question-mark-for-inter-miami-ahead-of-the-start-of-the-2026-mls-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/19\/will-messi-play-big-question-mark-for-inter-miami-ahead-of-the-start-of-the-2026-mls-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Messi play? Big question mark for Inter Miami ahead of the start of the 2026 MLS season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ue-c-article--first-letter-highlighted\"><span class=\"capital-letter\">a<\/span>Argentina star Lionel Messi suffered a strain in his left hamstring during a friendly against Barcelona SC in Ecuador a few weeks ago, and will then play in another friendly in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n<p>The injury, which comes just over 100 days before the 2026 World Cup, immediately set off alarm bells among Inter Miami and Argentina fans. They hope the 2022 World Cup winner will be 100% fit to compete in the Major League Soccer Championship again and arrive in good shape for the World Cup. And the injury raises questions about whether Messi will be available for the first game of the MLS season.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ue-c-article__summary\">\n<figure class=\"ue-c-article__media ue-c-article__media--video  video-dailymotion\"><figcaption class=\"ue-c-article__media-caption\" itemprop=\"description\">\n<p><span class=\"ue-c-article__media-description\">MLS stars reveal who they believe is the sport&#8217;s current GOAT<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"ue-c-article__subheadline\">Messi vs Son Heung-min: Inter Miami vs LAFC<\/h2>\n<p>The first game of the season for the reigning Major League Soccer champions, led by the legendary Javier Maccherano, will be against one of the toughest rivals in the entire league, South Korea&#8217;s Son Heung-min&#8217;s LAFC.<\/p>\n<p>Against a top-class opponent, the Herons will be looking to get their squad off to a good start by having their entire squad in this important game. Fortunately for all fans of Lionel Messi and his team, the former Barcelona player and football legend is already fit and training for this weekend&#8217;s matches. Inter Miami&#8217;s first match of the season is as follows:<\/p>\n<p>LAFC vs. Inter Miami &#8211; Saturday, February 21st &#8211; 9:30pm ET. Orlando City vs. Inter Miami &#8211; Sunday, March 1 &#8211; 7:00 PM ET. DC United vs. Inter Miami &#8211; Saturday, March 3 &#8211; 4:30pm ET. Charlotte FC vs. Inter Miami &#8211; Saturday, March 14th &#8211; 6:30pm ET.<\/p>\n<p>All MLS matches in the United States are available on Apple TV through MLS Season Pass.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"ue-c-article__subheadline\">Will Messi represent Argentina at the 2026 World Cup?<\/h2>\n<p>At the moment, the official list of players for Lionel Scaloni&#8217;s Argentina national team for the 2026 World Cup has not been officially announced, but many Argentina fans and fans around the world take it for granted that Messi will be included in the final list of the biggest World Cup in history, which will be co-hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Argentina&#8217;s first stage rivals in Group J are Austria, Algeria and Jordan, who are on paper far weaker opponents than the Albiceleste, but no one can forget their opening game at the last World Cup, where they ultimately lost to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marca.com\/en\/football\/mls\/2026\/02\/19\/6996fecbca474143668b45a6.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>aArgentina star Lionel Messi suffered a strain in his left hamstring during a friendly against Barcelona SC in Ecuador a few weeks ago, and will then play in another friendly in Puerto Rico. The injury, which comes just over 100 days before the 2026 World Cup, immediately set off alarm bells among Inter Miami and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Will Messi play? Big question mark for Inter Miami ahead of the start of the 2026 MLS season - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/19\/will-messi-play-big-question-mark-for-inter-miami-ahead-of-the-start-of-the-2026-mls-season\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will Messi play? Big question mark for Inter Miami ahead of the start of the 2026 MLS season - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"aArgentina star Lionel Messi suffered a strain in his left hamstring during a friendly against Barcelona SC in Ecuador a few weeks ago, and will then play in another friendly in Puerto Rico. The injury, which comes just over 100 days before the 2026 World Cup, immediately set off alarm bells among Inter Miami and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/19\/will-messi-play-big-question-mark-for-inter-miami-ahead-of-the-start-of-the-2026-mls-season\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-19T14:16:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/19\/will-messi-play-big-question-mark-for-inter-miami-ahead-of-the-start-of-the-2026-mls-season\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/19\/will-messi-play-big-question-mark-for-inter-miami-ahead-of-the-start-of-the-2026-mls-season\/\",\"name\":\"Will Messi play? 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