“The injury, beyond today’s absence, must be managed week by week. We take advantage of the fact that we have full weeks and we will constantly evaluate it,” Martino explained at a press conference after the match won in Washington against DC United.
Messi, who left injured in the second half of last Wednesday’s game against Nashville, was not called up for this Saturday’s game in the federal capital.
“With him there is one objective: for him to arrive in conditions to play in the Quarterfinals of the ‘ConcaChampions’, so we are not going to do anything that involves taking any kind of risk,” Martino added.
Inter Miami will face Monterrey in the quarterfinals of this tournament with the first leg on April 3 in Miami and the return leg on April 10 in Mexico.
Meanwhile, Inter has two MLS games against the New York Red Bulls and New York City Football Club.
Martino also referred during the press conference to Luis Suárez’s role in the match against DC United, in which he scored two goals entering the 62nd minute and thus deciding the 1-3 victory for his team.
“We had talked that he was going to have half an hour and it defined the game,” explained the coach, who made the decision after the Uruguayan also played Wednesday’s game against Nashville almost completely.
“Luis had played the previous game with Nashville, he understood that it was a good possibility to come in as a refresher,” said Martino, who explained that one of his tasks with experienced players such as the Uruguayan, Messi, Sergio Busquets or Jordi Alba is “to convince them when stop to allow yourself a pause.”
“In short, try to get them to contribute not specifically when they play 90 minutes, but when they play less, he (Luis Suárez) did it today,” he concluded.