Messi felt the back of his left leg, and an entire press tribune held its breath. Argentina were 2-0 up against Croatia in Doha, a World Cup final in sight, but none of that mattered in the moment. It never does when it's him.
Then, in the 69th minute, he took the ball and left Josko Gvardiol — a centre-back lauded throughout that tournament for his athleticism and composure — spinning in the wrong direction. Twice. The chaos Messi created in that penalty area was enough to leave Julian Alvarez unmarked, and the assist made it 3-0. The worry dissolved as quickly as it had arrived.
That sequence, in miniature, is the entire Messi story at international level. Concern, then brilliance. Doubt, then gold.
The hamstring question going into the summer
Now there's a hamstring overload on that same left leg heading into the 2026 World Cup, where Argentina open against Algeria. The injury is real and worth taking seriously — Messi turns 39 during the tournament, and we've seen what a hot summer can do even to elite athletes. Jannik Sinner's struggles at Roland Garros are a recent reminder that heat and accumulated fatigue don't discriminate.
Scaloni said in Doha that Messi will be substituted when Messi wants. That philosophy worked in Qatar, but it's a harder sell when you're managing a 38-year-old through a seven-match tournament in North American heat. His form going in is difficult to argue with — 13 goals and seven assists in MLS before the league break, top scorer in South American qualifying with eight goals, and the first player in league history to win MVP in back-to-back seasons. By output, he's earned every minute Scaloni gives him.
But Argentina's tournament odds rest, uncomfortably, on whether that hamstring holds.
Why this Argentina side is more than just Messi
What made Qatar work was the structure around him. Rodrigo De Paul, Alexis Mac Allister and Leandro Paredes absorbed the defensive workload so Messi could operate in the pockets he chooses. Seventeen players from that World Cup-winning squad — "La Scaloneta" — will be in the USA this summer. That continuity matters more than any single result in qualifying.
Javier Mascherano put it simply: Messi has to be comfortable on the pitch. "He's comfortable when things are working in the right way." In a country where he won the 2024 Copa América, playing his club football in Miami, that comfort factor is real. Inter Miami drew nearly a quarter of America's 200,000-strong Argentine community to South Florida. He's not a stranger here.
Jorge Valdano, who won it all with Argentina in 1986, framed the squad's collective strength well: "Argentina has achieved the best thing a national team can achieve: being a team. It's a team with a very clear leadership, that of the coach and Leo Messi, and players who haven't lost their hunger."
- Messi has 13 goals and eight assists across five World Cups
- He played every minute of the 2022 campaign after recovering from an Achilles issue
- No player since 1966 had a goal and assist in four different World Cup matches in a single edition — Messi did it in Qatar
- His seven goals and three assists in 2022 earned him five player-of-the-match awards and a second Golden Ball
The precedent from 2022 is there — he recovered from an Achilles problem before that tournament and played every single minute. But an Achilles in pre-tournament prep and a hamstring overload mid-competition are different problems. The next few weeks of management will tell Scaloni far more than any training ground press conference.
"He has to be comfortable on the pitch." Right now, the question is whether that left leg lets him be.
