Lionel Messi: Chelsea’s new signing Christopher Nkunku sustained a knee injury during their recent friendly against Borussia Dortmund at the Soldier Field Stadium. The pitch was in a bad state because of a concert that was held over the weekend. However, new coach Mauricio Pochettino has refused to blame the pitch. This injury of the Chelsea star has brought forward old concerns for Lionel Messi who is set to play on artificial grass in the coming few days. The concerns increase as one club has refused to switch to natural grass.
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Christopher Nkunku joined Chelsea from RB Leipzig near the end of June. So far, he has been featured in all of Chelsea’s pre-season friendlies. However, in their recent friendly against Borussia Dortmund at the Soldier Field Stadiums, the newcomer sustained a knee injury within 9 minutes into the match. New coach Mauricio Pochettino refused to blame the state of the pitch. However, it still can’t be denied that the pitch was in a horrible state because of the Ed Sheeran concert that was held over the weekend.
The stadium, which has a capacity of 61,500, held 73,000 people on the weekend for the Ed Sheeran concert. Following the concert, the pitch was in a bad state and remained so even into the game. Even though Pochettino does not blame the pitch’s conditions, it could still very well have been a catalyst for the injury to happen. About the player’s injury, Pochettino said, “The doctors are checking him and I hope it is not a big issue.”
He added, “He fell in the action which was maybe a penalty and he feels something in his knee, but we hope it is nothing big. We hope he can be back quickly with the team and we need a few days to assess him. We took some risks because the pitch is not perfect. The facilities are used for a different sport and that is sometimes the risk of the tour. We won’t blame the pitch for the injury though. For me, it was bad luck.”
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Lionel Messi joined the MLS side Inter Miami after the season ended in June. There were several concerns surrounding his transfer to the American club. Two of them were – providing security in the matches and several MLS clubs use artificial grass in their stadium. Europe rarely has any artificial turf, so it will be difficult for Messi and could lead to injuries. When he joined Inter Miami, MLS commissioner Don Garber said that he expected the clubs to temporarily switch to natural grass to accommodate Messi.
There are 5 teams in the MLS Eastern Conference that use artificial turf. One of those teams is Charlotte FC, who have been the first to speak up on the matter. They informed that they will not switch to accommodate Messi and Co. There have been recent instances when they temporarily switched to natural grass. However, they have refused to do it in this case. It’s understandable in the manner that they don’t want to hand their opponent an advantage. However, that still raises more concern for possible injuries Messi could sustain.
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