Lionel Messi

FC Barcelona has updated the world on the severity of the arm injury which forced Lionel Messi off in the 26th minute of the club’s 4-2 victory over Sevilla on Saturday, and it’s terrible news for fans of the beautiful game: Messi has fractured the radial bone in his right arm and will be out for three weeks. 

Accordingly, Barca’s captain will miss Wednesday’s Champions League match against Inter Milan and, most notably, next Sunday’s El Clásico at the Camp Nou. 

Lionel Messi did what Lionel Messi does 12 minutes into Barcelona’s match against Sevilla on Saturday. Then he did something uncharacteristic for the prolific Argentine: he got hurt.

In a scary moment for Barça fans, Messi was taken off with an apparent arm injury after an awkward fall in the 16th minute, moments after he scored his 12th goal of the season. He was eventually taken off in the 26th minute, unable to continue, a rare injury for a player who has averaged more than 52 appearances per season the last 10 years.

The World Cup was an absolute shit show for Argentine manager Jorge Sampaoli. Jettisoned into the job in May of 2017 as the savior of Argentina’s horrendous qualifying campaign, the former Sevilla boss managed to secure passage to Russia on the final match day (although Lionel Messi’s hat trick in Quito certainly helped).

However, with one armageddon avoided, the next promptly arrived — the finals themselves revealed what many had known about La Albiceleste since the cycle began: The beaten 2014 finalists weren’t very good anymore, apart from Messi.