MIAMI – Argentina lost the World Cup final on July 18 at MetLife Stadium, falling 1-0 to Spain in extra time. Lionel Messi resumed training at Inter Miami’s Fort Lauderdale facility on Thursday, ten days after that defeat, without a confirmed timeline for returning to the starting lineup. His participation in Saturday’s home match against Columbus Crew had not been confirmed by the club.
Between the tournament’s conclusion and Thursday’s session, Messi missed two MLS regular-season wins against Chicago and Montreal, declined to appear at the MLS All-Star Game in Charlotte, and spent time with his father Jorge, whose family announced during the World Cup that Jorge is managing an undisclosed illness. Inter Miami offered no public explanation for his absence from Charlotte, where Son Heung-min scored twice and earned MVP honors as MLS held off Liga MX 4-3.
The ten-day gap was brief by any calendar. By the accounting of what this summer produced, it carried its own weight.
Messi’s sixth World Cup was his most statistically complete. He scored eight goals, provided four assists, and raised his all-time World Cup goal total to 21, the highest in the tournament’s history and ahead of Miroslav Klose’s previous record of 16, according to Al Jazeera. Kylian Mbappé finished the 2026 tournament with 22 goals for England but it was Messi’s record he overtook. Argentina reached the final with a 3-2 comeback from two goals down against Egypt in the quarterfinals and an eight-match winning run before Spain’s counterattack in the 98th minute ended the campaign.
That ending, at 39, leaves the question open that has attached itself to every Messi international appearance for three years: whether it was his last one. He has not addressed it publicly. No announcement has come from the Argentine Football Association or from Inter Miami. The retirement speculation that attended the final stages of the tournament is unresolved because he has not resolved it.
Jorge Messi’s illness added a dimension to the absence that the match statistics cannot measure. His father served as his agent for most of his professional career and remains a close presence in his public life. The family announced the diagnosis during the tournament without specifying its nature. Messi withdrew from the All-Star engagement without public comment from either his representatives or Inter Miami. The decision and the reasoning behind it remained private through Thursday.
Inter Miami did not need him to hold its Eastern Conference position during the interval. The club is 11-2-4 with 37 points, two points behind Nashville SC in the Eastern Conference standings. Casemiro, who joined Inter Miami in July after his contract with Manchester United expired, has steadied the midfield. The forward line produced sufficient results during the absence to prevent the standings from shifting significantly against them.
But the remaining schedule does not tolerate a slow return to full contribution, and Nashville has shown no sign of the inconsistency Inter Miami would need to overcome without full-strength performances from their highest-profile player. Saturday’s match against Columbus carries competitive weight regardless of Messi’s availability. If he plays, the attention will follow.
Argentina’s World Cup final against Spain ended with Lamine Yamal collecting the Player of the Tournament award. Messi had won it in 2022 and led his side across eight matches in 2026 before the Spanish counterattack at MetLife settled the matter of who claimed consecutive championships. He left the stadium without the trophy and with a question about the future that Thursday’s return to the training pitch does not yet answer.
The club’s next scheduled home match after Saturday is against D.C. United on August 6. Nashville plays at home the same weekend. Two points is not an insurmountable gap in a conference with weeks remaining. Whether Messi is available Saturday or whether Inter Miami waits another week for his first post-World Cup regular-season appearance, the Eastern Conference calculation does not pause for the answer.
The more immediate variable is physical. Messi played eight matches over five weeks at the World Cup, including extra time in the final. Players at his age carry tournament fatigue differently than they did at 29 or 32. Inter Miami’s medical staff has assessed him since his return to Fort Lauderdale, and the absence of a confirmed start against Columbus Crew on Saturday is, in part, a measure of that ongoing evaluation rather than a precaution around the news cycle.
He was back on the training pitch Thursday. What follows from there is the question Inter Miami’s offseason investment in players like Casemiro was designed to support: a roster capable of converting a World Cup returnee’s form into a conference title.
