Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni has included Lionel Messi in his preliminary list for CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela and Ecuador on Sept. 4 and 9, respectively.
The 31-man squad for the matches includes young talents like Real Madrid’s recent signing Franco Mastantuono and Manchester City’s Claudio Echeverri as well as AFC Bournemouth defender Julio Soler and José Manuel “Flaco” López, who plays for Palmeiras.
The call-up marks the return of Marcos Acuña as well while Manchester United forward Alejandro Garnacho is missing this time around.
Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernández, who received a two-match suspension for his sending off against Colombia in June, will sit out and instead, FC Porto’s Alan Varela was chosen.
This past March, Argentina became the first South American team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico. They lead CONMEBOL qualifying.
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Argentina, who won their third World Cup title in Qatar in 2022, secured their spot by beating Brazil 4-1 in March after Bolivia failed to beat Uruguay.
The win over Brazil also marked the first time Argentina have won both matches against Brazil in a World Cup qualifying tournament. The home victory was also Argentina’s first against the Brazilians since qualifying for the 2006 World Cup.
The match vs. Venezuela will be played at home at the Monumental in Buenos Aires and the match vs. Ecuador will be played sea level in Guayaquil.
Argentina captain Messi, meanwhile, returned to action for Inter Miami on Saturday night following two weeks out with a muscle injury in his right leg. Against LA Galaxy, Messi scored a goal and then provided a sensational assist for Luis Suárez to propel his MLS club to a 3-1 win.
Miami coach Javier Mascherano, however, has cautioned that Messi, who was seen grabbing at his hamstring multiple times, is not at full health.
“He clearly wasn’t 100% comfortable,” Mascherano said after Saturday’s match. “Now, the reality is that as the minutes went by, he started to loosen up a little more. We’ll have to see how it ended in terms of fatigue. The injury had been something very, very small, and good that the three training sessions we had were good.
“I repeat how important it was that he finished the game. I was seeing him better as the minutes went by, but what we have to see is tomorrow how he feels, and take it day by day.”
Messi, 38, has scored in his past four appearances when coming off the bench with Inter Miami. He last saw limited minutes for Argentina in their 1-1 qualifying draw vs. Colombia and their 1-0 win over Chile this past June. Prior to that match, he missed the March qualifiers due to injury.
Information from ESPN’s Lizzy Becherano and The Associated Press was used in this report.
