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<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nLionel Messi has been named in a strong Argentina squad for next month\u2019s World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela and Ecuador, having returned from injury on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Messi injured a muscle in his right leg during Inter Miami\u2019s Leagues Cup match against Necaxa on August 2, which caused him to miss a win over Pumas UNAM in that same competition and a 4-1 defeat to Florida rivals Orlando City in MLS.<\/p>\n
The eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner returned as a substitute on Saturday and had an immediate impact, scoring and assisting as Miami beat the LA Galaxy 3-1.<\/p>\n
Having had limited minutes in June\u2019s fixtures against Chile and Colombia, Messi headlines a 31-man squad for the Albiceleste\u2019s final two World Cup qualifiers. <\/p>\n
The reigning champions sealed qualification for the 2026 tournament in March and are already guaranteed to top the 10-team CONMEBOL qualification group.<\/p>\n
Against that backdrop, Lionel Scaloni has also chosen to call up a series of young players, including Real Madrid\u2019s Franco Mastantuono, Manchester City\u2019s Claudio Echeverri and Como\u2019s breakout star Nico Paz.<\/p>\n
The biggest name to be omitted from the squad is Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez, who must serve a two-match ban after being sent off in June\u2019s 1-1 draw with Colombia.<\/p>\n
Alejandro Garnacho is also absent as he continues to train away from Manchester United\u2019s first-team squad, amid reports linking him with Chelsea.<\/p>\n
\n The preliminary squad chosen by Lionel Scaloni to close out the <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
Read More<\/a>SoccerNews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soccer Lionel Messi has been named in a strong Argentina squad for next month\u2019s World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela and Ecuador, having returned from injury on Saturday. Messi injured a muscle in his right leg during Inter Miami\u2019s Leagues Cup match against Necaxa on August 2, which caused him to miss a win over Pumas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":866096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[760,22673,2005],"tags":[6998,42860],"class_list":{"0":"post-866095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leads","8":"category-messi","9":"category-soccer","10":"tag-leads","11":"tag-messi"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}