Inter Miami received a bucket of cold water in the face in late March when Lionel Messi was forced to watch from the sidelines while teammate Sergio Busquets started at center back against NYCFC in MLS action.
Messi is by far the most notable of the players struggling to stay fit as the calendar turns to April, but he is far from alone in the manager’s room.
With the 2024 MLS season just a month away, coach Tata Martino has a long list of injuries to deal with, from superstar Messi to established veterans, young stars, new signings and everyone in between.
As the Herons prepare for a daunting midweek showdown against a talented (and completely in-form) Monterrey team in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarter-final, Martino has the extremely difficult task of selecting a starting lineup knowing that an important part of their squad is dealing with various physical fitness issues.
Inter Miami injuries, team news vs Colorado
- Outside: Benjamín Cremaschi (hernia), Federico Redondo (knee), Facundo Farias (knee), Ian Fray (knee), Robbie Robinson (knee).
- Questionable: Lionel Messi (hamstring), Robert Taylor (groin), Serhiy Kryvtsov (hamstring)
Lionel Messi was It is believed that he is aiming for the midweek match against Monterrey. to return after missing several weeks due to injury, but instead will not be involved, according to the latest report from Argentina. According to Martín ArévaloMessi’s recovery is going well but the club has decided not to risk him in this match. It sure looks like he will be available this weekend against the Colorado Rapids, but as always, that remains to be seen for sure.
However, Messi is far from the only injury concern on this devastated Inter Miami team. Midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi He’s out for a few more weeks after hernia surgery before the season started, and Facundo Farias He will miss 2024 after tearing his ACL in the preseason.
Those players have been out since the start of the campaign, but recent injuries have caused even more strain. New signing federico round He recently suffered a meniscus tear in his knee and will miss two months as the defender ages Serhiy Kryvtsov He suffered a hamstring injury and will be out for a few weeks. Kryvstov was only seeing the field thanks to a hamstring injury Nicolas Freirewho returned from an injury to start the game against Monterrey.
Adding to the difficulties, Robert Taylor He suffered a muscle injury in the first half of Wednesday’s game against Monterrey, being substituted in the 37th minute. The Finnish international becomes the latest player to find himself in the coach’s room with what appeared to be a tendon problem. hamstring or groin.
The injuries are so serious that Sergio Busquets He had to play center back in the draw against NYCFC last weekend, but Tomas Aviles He played 25 minutes off the bench in that game and was a midweek starter. Still, Martino won’t want to put a heavy load on Avilés and Freire fresh off muscle injuries, and Noah Allen could be involved at some point to spell one or both in the near future.
While they are in a position to play this game from the start, as far as we know, there will also be concerns about early reliance on aging stars. Busquets and Luis Suarez. Busquets spent a brief time on the sidelines earlier in the season following an ankle injury sustained on the pre-season tour, while Suarez has a chronic knee problem that needs to be managed throughout the year and will be tested when he takes the field. in each and every one of the games.
Why do Inter Miami have so many injured players?
The 2024 season arrived at the end of February with high expectations for Inter Miami, but just over a month into the campaign, the team’s limitations threaten to derail its quest for glory.
Inter Miami is missing a group of important players and there are also concerns about others in the team. Lionel Messi’s absence for much of MLS’s start is the most obvious concern, and the overuse of him predates this season entirely, with his absence being the extremely predictable result of Tata Martino’s cavalier approach to his deployment. repeated.
While there is never a single reason for a club in the midst of an injury crisis to take the blame, it is difficult to look beyond the preseason world tour the club embarked on a month before the start of the regular season. .
While Inter Miami was on its lucrative tour, holding matches in El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Tokyo, as well as domestic matches in Dallas and Ft. Lauderdale. Lauderdale, the club surely cashed in on a significant financial windfall from the promotion of Messi and the other former Barcelona stars within the team.
However, the team also demanded a lot from its aging team, and the effects of that are currently being felt. Messi, 36, was injured during the tour, sparking a political nightmare when he was unable to take the field in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, veteran starters Sergio Busquets (35 years old), Serhiy Kryvtsov (33) and Luis Suárez (37) logged important minutes throughout the preseason games.
But injuries do not only affect the oldest players on the team. Young Argentine talent Facundo Farías suffered a season-ending ACL injury in the first friendly against El Salvador, and rising midfield star Benjamín Cremaschi suffered a sports hernia shortly after. Busquets injured his ankle in the Tokyo match and, although he recovered quickly, it is a reminder of the intense use of him, having logged 738 of a possible 900 minutes in 2024 so far.
Problems in midfield forced the club to include new signing Federico Redondo shortly after his arrival, and he will now be out for two months due to a torn meniscus. The two are not related; in fact, they are closely linked as an absence forces others to watch more minutes than their bodies can handle under the circumstances.
Kryvtsov, a Ukrainian defender who has shown signs of his advancing age, was not destined to be used as much after the arrival of Nicolas Freire. But the disconcerting departure of strong center back Kamal Miller left the team with little chance, and when Freire arrived with a knee injury and soon after suffered a hamstring problem, Kryvtsov had to log significant minutes. Sure enough, he now has his own hamstring problem.
The pre-season tour was not the only reason for this injury crisis in early 2024, but the problems caused by the many minutes in friendlies and important trips around the world have helped create a vortex of limitations in the team that It is causing a domino effect throughout the squad. .
It feels only a matter of time before Suarez, who has featured in all of Inter Miami’s games so far, starting all but two, suffers a chronic knee injury.
Injury problems in football clubs are a growing problem around the world, but sometimes there are measures to avoid clearly preventable events. In this case, Inter Miami has a number of potentially avoidable injuries that can, at least in part, be attributed to the grueling preseason trip.
Could Inter Miami have sold their soul for preseason cash and sacrificed their chances for regular-season or postseason glory? Obviously, that remains to be seen, with most of the season still to come, but early indications are that Tata Martino has a real headache that doesn’t seem to be subsiding anytime soon.
