World Cup Story Feed
World Cup Story Feed
The gesture of grabbing the back of his thigh in the 73rd minute of the downpour in Miami left the defending champion's World Cup start hanging by a thread. More than twenty days later, a penalty and an assist in Auburn provided a partial answer. But on June 16 in Kansas City, the 39 year old hamstring still has one final question to answer.
May 24, 2026. Miami.
The rain was relentless.
Not a gentle drizzle, but a tropical pressure system carried from the Caribbean Sea, rain that stung the face. The pitch looked like it had been coated with glue. The ball bounced lower than usual off the grass, and every time players' studs sank in and pulled out, there was a muffled sound.
The MLS regular-season match between Inter Miami and Philadelphia Union turned into a goal-laden 6-4 brawl.
4-4 at halftime.
8 goals.
Directly breaking the league's record for most goals in a single half.
Luis Suárez scored a hat trick—the 39-year-old Uruguayan veteran knocking in goals like ordering dishes. Philadelphia's Milan Iloski also bagged a hat trick, shredding Miami's defense to pieces. In between, there were a few chaotic goals, the ball seemingly bewitched in the box, rolling and tumbling into the net. The match ended with Inter Miami solidifying second place in the Eastern Conference with 31 points, but the scoreline was never the story of this game.
This wasn't football.
This was a runaway bus careening through a puddle.
But all those goals were just background noise.
The main event happened in the 73rd minute.
After taking a free kick—with no physical contact, no tackle, no challenge—Messi instinctively reached for the back of his left thigh.
A small gesture, but enormous in meaning.
It was an instinctive reaction only possible after more than a decade of running as a professional: hamstring warning. His hand moved faster than his brain.
He signaled to the substitutes' bench. Translation: Take me off.
The 38-year-old Argentina captain walked off the pitch without needing anyone's help, his stride steady, and headed straight down the tunnel. The humid Miami air closed behind him.
Argentina fans watching on screens did one collective thing.
Grabbed their heads.
Because the World Cup was just three weeks away.
This 6-4 match was Inter Miami's last game before the World Cup break. It was also Messi's penultimate appearance in a club shirt. The next time he would stand on the pitch in a jersey, it would either be the blue-and-white stripes of Argentina's national team, or never again.
He provided two assists in that game.
But the question was never whether he could still pass.
It was whether he could still run.
Whether that hamstring could survive the journey from Miami to Kansas City.
Inter Miami head coach Guillermo Hoyos downplayed the situation immediately after the match.
"It was a precautionary substitution."
"It's fatigue."
"The pitch was heavy, there was too much rain."
He wasn't injured.
But as light as his words were, the body language on the pitch at that moment didn't lie. When a 38-year-old footballer who lives by his legs voluntarily reaches for the back of his thigh—that image is understood by every medical staff in the world.
Two days later, on Monday, the club released an official statement. The diagnosis was measured: Overload of the left posterior thigh muscles, accompanied by fatigue. No specific return timeline was given.
Translation: Wait and see.
That wait lasted three weeks.
Foreign media noted that this was the third time in three years that Messi's hamstring had caused problems. Since joining Inter Miami in 2023, his calf management had been strictly controlled, with start-stop appearances being the norm. The coaching staff wanted to handle every regular-season game with kid gloves, fearing exactly this kind of moment.
But in 2026, time wasn't on his side.
The World Cup opens on June 11.
Argentina's first match against Algeria is on June 16 in Kansas City. Their other Group J opponents are Austria and Jordan.
If the hamstring issue was a tear-level injury, recovery could take three weeks. He might directly miss both pre-World Cup friendlies against Honduras and Iceland. Scaloni didn't have time for experiments.
Argentine journalist Gastón Edul revealed a detail that night: the club hadn't given any official explanation before the substitution; the picture was pieced together later from various sources. The Argentine beat reporters based in Miami collectively lost a night's sleep.
What unsettled the Argentine public most was Messi's own well-known rule.
Only if he's 100% healthy will he go.
Not 95%, not 90%.
100%.
He missed a penalty against Iceland in the 2018 World Cup, a group-stage match that ended in a 1-1 draw. In 2022, he finally lifted the Golden Ball in Qatar with 7 goals. He is the core of the generation that brought the World Cup back to Argentina.
He knows what it feels like to be on the pitch without him.
He also knows the consequences of playing through injury.
He won't gamble on "just being present."
But sometimes the body doesn't negotiate.
Scaloni faced the cameras on June 6, holding his breath for two weeks before finally speaking: "He has already trained partially with the team. He might play a few minutes in the friendlies against Honduras or Iceland."
When Argentines heard this, their first reaction wasn't relief; it was even more anxiety.
"A few minutes."
"Might."
"Partial training."
Those three words together formed an unfinished medical report.
Right as Messi's hamstring had the world on edge, Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni was holding medical reports far beyond just that one.
Cristian Romero – Tottenham center-back, the absolute core of Argentina's defense. He was injured.
Emiliano Martínez – Aston Villa goalkeeper, the one who pulled off miracle saves in the penalty shootouts in Qatar 2022. He was injured.
Nahuel Molina – Atlético Madrid right-back, the tempo-setter for Argentina's right-side attack and defense. He was injured.
Nicolás Paz – Real Betis midfielder, one of the most promising young players. He was injured.
Marcos Acuña – Sevilla left-back, the anchor of the left-side defense. He was injured.
Five names.
Defenders, goalkeeper, midfielder—covering half the starting lineup.
The defending champions' May preparations were more like a race against time in injury management. Not preparation; it was triage.
And the cruelest part was that while these positions were critical, there was still room for adjustment.
The number 10 position had none.
That was Argentina's Achilles' heel. All tactics, all passes, all the final three meters had to go through that 38-year-old left foot. From Qatar 2022 to the 2024 Copa América, and now to this leg in 2026, no one had truly replaced him.
That weekend, prediction market Polymarket dropped the odds on "Messi playing in the World Cup opener" from above 95% to below 90%.
An event that was almost a certainty had its odds loosened by one instinctive hand reaching for a hamstring.
5 percentage points.
In the betting market, 5 percentage points is an earthquake.
Without Romero, the defense had to be restructured.
Without Martínez, the goal had to be re-chosen.
Without Molina, the right flank had to be reshuffled.
But without the number 10—
Argentina becomes a different team.
This isn't superstition. It's data: In 14 MLS matches this season, he produced 20 goals (12 goals, 8 assists), the best in the league. His total for Inter Miami across 67 games is 107 goals. His career assists total 414, setting a football history record.
He is still on the tail end of his peak.
And the tail end is the sharpest and the most fragile.
Scaloni publicly stated that Messi was very eager to play, but the final decision was up to the player himself. The words sounded warm, but translated into locker room language, it meant: the coaching staff is already preparing a Plan B without the number 10, but no one wants to show that card yet.
June 6.
In the friendly against Honduras in College Station, Texas, the official line was "Messi could play a few minutes." He didn't start in the end. Whether he came off the bench and how long he played wasn't fully documented in public sources. But all eyes were on the match on June 9 at Auburn.
On Auburn University's campus, the night and the pitch were bathed in bluish floodlights.
Argentina 3-0 Iceland.
Valentín Barco scored in the 8th minute, breaking the deadlock first. The message from kickoff was clear: Argentina wasn't holding back.
Messi sat on the substitutes' bench for 70 minutes.
70 minutes.
For a 38-year-old just recovering from a hamstring issue, whose every move was being tracked by the news cycle, those 70 minutes felt longer than the entire first half. TV cameras panned repeatedly to his face, his hands, his hamstring. Commentators gave "updates" on his condition every couple of minutes.
Then he stood up.
Walked towards the fourth official.
Subbed on.
Replaced in the 70th minute.
The entire stadium of Argentina fans held their breath.
In the 71st minute, Lautaro Martínez was brought down in the box.
Penalty.
In the 72nd minute, Messi stood over the spot.
Slotted it home.
From his substitution to scoring that penalty, only 119 seconds had passed.
The Argentine who had his hamstring alarm blaring for two years heard an echo in a single second.
The data gets more impressive: it was his 117th career goal for the national team.
Age: 38 years, 11 months, 18 days.
The oldest goalscorer in Argentina's national team history.
The previous record was held by Ángel Labruna—a name that had been sealed in the archives for years.
Now it's been overwritten.
In the 86th minute, Messi delivered another assist, which Thiago Almada gratefully finished.
3-0.
Argentina submitted a decent final answer in their last pre-World Cup friendly.
Messi didn't start.
But in 20 minutes, he told everyone—
Hamstring isn't broken.
Hamstring isn't broken.
Hamstring isn't broken.
Say it three times.
The decision to have him sit on the bench for 70 minutes was itself the answer. If there was a real problem, Scaloni wouldn't have let him play on June 9, even for just 20 minutes. The coaching staff used the match to both test the leg and to test their own nerves.
World Cup opening day: June 11.
Argentina's first match: June 16, Kansas City.
Opponent: Algeria.
Other Group J opponents: Austria, Jordan.
This is the first World Cup expanded to 48 teams, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. From the rain in Miami to the night in Alabama, to the summer in Kansas City, every step is a drain for a defending champion full of injuries.
Expansion means a longer schedule, more varied opponents, and less margin for error.
48 teams.
Getting out of the group stage was already tough in the 32-team era. In the 48-team era, the opening match of Group J is a game that allows no slip-ups.
Algeria is no pushover. Teams from North Africa never are. Austria is no participant either. From the 1-1 draw in 2018 (where Messi also missed a penalty) to the 2026 opener, eight full years have passed.
That missed penalty eight years ago is one of the biggest knots in Messi's generation's World Cup history.
Now, the man standing at the penalty spot is the 39-year-old version of him.
Whether he still has the courage to "take another one" is the thorn that remains lodged in everyone's hearts.
He has no obligation to play.
But everyone knows—if Argentina wants a stable start in Group J, they need the man in the number 10 jersey to at least be on the pitch.
He doesn't need to play 90 minutes.
He doesn't need to reenact a Maradona-esque solo run.
He doesn't need to carry the whole team bulldozing into the box.
He just needs to be there.
Be there, and Argentina is a different team.
Not be there, and Argentina is just an ordinary, injury-riddled, on-paper still-contending defending champion.
Those 119 seconds at Auburn on June 9 were an answer.
But June 16 in Kansas City is the exam itself.
This is the last lingering suspense before the 2026 World Cup.
And also the cruelest.
Because it depends on a hamstring.
A 39-year-old hamstring, just injured, just proven over 119 seconds, that must carry the load of at least seven matches from May 24 to July 19.
39 years old. Sixth World Cup. And the missed penalty eight years ago.
That is Argentina's entire bet.