Lionel Messi and Jordi Alba leave the Inter Miami match due to injury

Lionel Messi was substituted with an apparent leg injury in the 37th minute of Inter Miami’s match against Toronto FC on Wednesday, just minutes after his former Barcelona teammate Jordi Alba left the field.

Messi and Alba, who started the match after not making the trip for Saturday’s 5-2 loss to Atlanta United, did not participate in any particularly heavy challenges or visibly limp but were clearly in some sort of physical discomfort.

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Both players went directly to the bench instead of the locker room after leaving the field, and Miami scored a goal after the two left the field to take a 1-0 lead into the first half.

Messi looked lively early on and had a golden opportunity in the 23rd minute when he fired a shot from the far post from Facundo Farias’s brilliant effort over the bar from close range. However, after 15 minutes, it was clear that the Argentine was having a physical problem, and he was replaced by Robert Taylor.

Alba had left just four minutes earlier. Toronto also made two substitutions before Alba and Messi left the game, with another former Barcelona youth player – Victor Vazquez – having to come off in the 12th minute. His replacement, Brandon Cervania, was helped off just 14 minutes later with an apparent knee injury.

Messi was substituted in the 37th minute, a few minutes after Alba, after spending a few minutes suffering from what appeared to be a leg problem. He would stretch during the game, then eventually took off the captain’s armband and simply waited for play to stop so he could leave – not even waiting to get off the field before unbuttoning his boots, lowering his socks and removing his shin pads.

Messi missed his last two matches – one for the club and the other for the national team – in recent days, after missing Argentina’s World Cup qualifier win over Bolivia on September 12, and the loss to Atalanta on Saturday.

Fatigue was mentioned in both cases, and Messi was not made available for comment.

Wednesday’s match was the first of six matches for Inter Miami in 17 days. The team will next play Orlando City on Sunday, then host Houston Dynamo FC in the US Open Cup final on September 27. This will be followed by three more MLS matches in short order: against New York City FC on September 30. , at Chicago Fire FC on October 4, and hosting FC Cincinnati on October 7.

Miami entered Wednesday with a seven-point lead over D.C. United to advance to the Eastern Conference playoffs, with two games in hand.

Messi entered Wednesday after participating in 11 matches with Miami, most of them in the League Cup and the US Open Cup. He had 11 goals and five assists in his first 11 games, including one goal and two assists in three MLS games.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.