Inter Miami head coach Javier Mascherano has determined to relaxation captain Lionel Messi for Saturday’s MLS regular-season match at Charlotte FC on Saturday evening at Bank of America Stadium, a supply confirmed to ESPN.
The option to relaxation Messi comes from Mascherano, and never as a consequence of any present harm.
The Argentine captain final performed for Inter Miami on Wednesday evening in opposition to Nashville SC within the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup spherical of 16, drawing 0-0 at GEODIS Park. Messi performed all the match.
Messi’a Miami and Argentina teammate Rodrigo De Paul may also be absent from Saturday evening’s motion, a supply confirmed to ESPN.
Messi and de Paul each shaped a part of the earlier Inter Miami squad that performed at Bank of America Stadium in September 2025, when the group fell 3-0 in Charlotte. The stadium’s synthetic grass didn’t play a decisive position in Mascherano’s game-day squad, with Messi, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and De Paul all that includes within the common season match.
Following Saturday’s recreation, Inter Miami will host Nashville for the second-leg match on March 18 at Chase Stadium for a ticket to the event’s quarterfinals.
Though Mascherano beforehand admitted the Concacaf Champions Cup is a precedence for Inter Miami, the coach has insisted he will probably be treating all competitions equally all year long.
“We’re not a team that chooses which competitions to play in; we’re obligated to compete in all of them,” he mentioned. Clearly, the Champions League is the one competitors the membership usually performs in that we’re lacking, and it is producing a whole lot of pleasure for all of us. Now, what we will not enable is for this to develop into an obsession. It’s one factor to be excited, one other to be obsessed.”
Inter Miami at the moment boasts six factors in MLS after incomes two wins and one loss to start out the 2026 marketing campaign.
