Messi will need time to return to his best

Lionel Messi has suffered many setbacks during the last six months and faces his longest battle yet to recover from injury in time for the second half of Barcelona’s season. Messi suffered his third injury of the season, tearing his left hamstring just 20 minutes into the match against Betis on Sunday and will be on the treatment table for 6-8 weeks. It is the longest spell Messi will have been injured for and this recent spate of injuries has marked a new chapter in his career.

After breaking Gerd Muller’s goalscoring record for strikes in a calendar year at the Estadio Benito Villamarin last year, Messi has endured a wretched 2013. It has seen a dramatic fall from a player at the peak of his game to one short of confidence and prone to injury. There has been a notable change in Messi’s psyche which could prevent the forwards from returning to the sort of form that saw him score in 19 consecutive La Liga games last season.

It is a commonly used cliché to attribute a percentage of performance to mental strength but in Messi’s case the proportion has certainly changed since his first niggle against PSG in February. At the peak of his game Messi would take on opponents twice his size without fear, dribbling his way extraordinarily towards the goal – and on most occasions he would succeed. In the last four La Liga games before the injury against Betis, Messi has been evidently restrained. Whether this is due to his fitness or a word from boss Tata Martino, this is not the same Messi that has deservedly won four Ballon d’Or titles.

Before last season Messi had not been injured for more than one week since 2007/08 and we all know how Messi has developed during that time. In the past five years Messi’s brain has developed too. He’s become accustomed to challenges and putting his body through tribulations for so long without damage that gave him a belief that he could withstand anything. The lack of fear propelled Messi to heights no other footballer on the planet could reach. No opponent could stop him or his teammates and that gave Messi the inner confidence to play at an astronomical level we may sadly never see again.

Messi was more conscious of a challenge in his recent games. He was wary of taking a knock whereas he previously had no fear. It was not something that had happened to him in his career. There’s no doubting Messi’s ability or his mental state, but these recent injuries have set him back considerably. He’s been improving aspects of his game as he matured and as Barcelona dominated world football and for the first time in years something has changed – his own body.

Messi trusts the doctors at Barcelona but they have recently said that they were wrong to rush the star back so soon after the injury against PSG. Now following three different injuries, some linked to that original hamstring one, the level of trust between him and the doctors must surely have changed too. Fresh doubts will be in Messi’s mind when he is scheduled for a return in two months time.

This injury is a watershed moment for Messi; the time that he proves to people he is the world’s best. Not only that but he needs to prove to himself that he is capable of scoring in consecutive games once again and gain that confidence in himself that made him the undisputed king of world football.

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tomw