Inter Miami CF head coach Javier Mascherano confirmed Lionel Messi will be traveling with the team to Jamaica to face Cavalier FC in the second leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup round-of-16 series Thursday at Kingston’s Independence Park.
Messi missed the previous three Miami matches due to what Mascherano described as load management.
“Leo Messi is on the roster and will travel with the team to Jamaica,” Mascherano told media on Wednesday. “Tomorrow we will decide for the game what is best, if he starts or waits on the bench and comes in later.
“Today he trained with the team, and the sensations were good. We’re happy he’ll travel with us to Jamaica.”
The team will travel Wednesday to follow Concacaf protocol and be in the location of the match 24 hours prior to kick off.
In an effort to avoid any future injuries, Mascherano failed to include Messi in the rosters for the matches against the Houston Dynamo and Cavalier FC before leaving him on the bench for the entirety of the game against Charlotte FC on Sunday.
The coach stressed on multiple occasions that Messi did not sustain an injury at the start of the season, but he simply chose to rest the player to minimize the risks after kicking off the 2025 campaign with three games in the span of seven days.
Inter Miami will now prepare to face Cavalier in the second leg with most of the roster available, seeing the return of defender Maxi Falcon after he missed out on the match against Charlotte due to a blow to the leg during Champions Cup action.
Miami enters Thursday’s game with a 2-0 lead over Cavalier after winning the first match at Chase Stadium last week. Mascherano stressed he isn’t taking anything for granted, though brushed off concerns about the conditions of the field in Jamaica’s capital
“We know that tomorrow we are going to play a tough game for us. It’s a game that is very important, not just for this week but for the season because we had the chance to through to quarterfinals,” said Mascherano.
“At the end, obviously we prefer if the field is good, better for us for the way that we play. But anyway, we have to play in the condition that the field is.”
Should Inter Miami complete the win in Jamaica, the team would face MLS opponent LAFC in the quarterfinals.
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