Chicago (USA), Aug 30 (EFE).- Leo Messi is the big doubt for Inter Miami ahead of Saturday’s visit to the Chicago Fire in the twenty-seventh round of the MLS, a match that the Argentine arrives for after a week of good training, but still without medical clearance, following the ankle injury suffered in the Copa America final.
Inter Miami is the undisputed leader of the MLS East with 56 points and already secured its ticket to the playoffs last week with eight games to spare, but coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino made it clear that he needs to maintain high concentration until the end of the regular season in order to be in shape for the knockout stage.
The pink club will decide in the next few hours whether Messi will join the expedition that will face this Saturday at Soldier Field against the Chicago Fire, a team that is fighting for a place in the ‘play-in’ and that has only won one of its last five games.
“He is getting better. He has not yet been given the all-clear, but we will determine today if he can travel to Chicago tomorrow,” Martino said at the press conference before the match.
“These are issues that are also discussed a lot with him, about how he is feeling. It is an injury that has left him out for more than six weeks. He has to be very calm, very confident, and we will make a decision,” he added.
Inter Miami can count on a Uruguayan Luis Suarez in great form, who scored a double in last week’s victory against Cincinnati.
The Fire said goodbye a few weeks ago to their designated player, Swiss Xherdan Shaqiri, who returned to Basel shortly before his three-year, $8.5 million-a-year contract with the Chicago team ended.
In the West, the Los Angeles Galaxy lead the standings by five points over their Los Angeles rivals, Los Angeles FC, although they have three games in hand.
With German Marco Reus as the star, the Galaxy beat Atlanta United on the last day and will now challenge modest Saint Louis City, second to last, at home.
LAFC, after qualifying for the US Open Cup final this week, will face the Houston Dynamo, the reigning cup champion, this weekend.
Among the other notable matches, the newly crowned Leagues Cup champions, the Columbus Crew of Colombian Juan Camilo ‘Cucho’ Hernández, will face New York City, while the Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers will play a ‘derby’ in the northwest of the country.
