Ahead Of Argentina Vs Brazil: Messi Is Ready To Go Down, Neymar Is Injured

Lionel Messi (Instagram @leomessi)

JAKARTA - Argentina national team captain Lionel Messi is back in shape so he is ready to play in Wednesday's 2022 World Cup qualifier home match against Brazil. Instead, Neymar will miss defending the visitors after feeling pain in his thigh.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni had made a similar statement ahead of the 1-0 Uruguay clash with Argentina last Friday, although Messi only featured during the final 14 minutes of the match.

Argentina is second in the 10-team South America qualifying zone six points behind Brazil, who are the only team from this zone to have already qualified for Qatar 2022.

Scaloni reiterated that Messi has fully recovered from the knee and hamstring injuries that have ruled him out of Paris St Germain's last two games and are ready to compete for one of the biggest games on the South American calendar.

"He was physically fit the other day and in the end, we decided that the best thing for him was to play him a few minutes so he can feel healthy and it's confirmed he will play tomorrow", Scaloni said of the match in San Juan.

"It's going to be a very tough match", said Scaloni. "They are the team leading the qualifiers and they have already qualified for the finals."

Brazil will be without Neymar after Brazil's top scorer complained of pain in the adductor area of his left thigh.

"Neymar Jr admits to feeling insecure about the situation and because there is not enough time to carry out complementary tests, the technical committee has decided to rest players who will not be traveling with the team to San Juan which will host Tuesday's match against Argentina", the Brazil national team said.

The top four South American teams advance automatically to next year's World Cup finals, while the fifth-placed team advances to the inter-regional play-offs.

Argentina is unbeaten in 26 matches, including a 1-0 win over Brazil in the Copa America final in Rio de Janeiro in July.