Why didn't Messi even sit on the bench in Argentina's match against Bolivia?

The Argentina team played at Hernando Siles Stadium without Lionel Messi in the starting lineup. He also did not sit on the bench. Meaning that La Pulga could not play in the match against Bolivia in the end.

The presence of “number 10” has been really complicated for good reasons. He barely trained for four days, which is potentially risky for any player. Messi only performed light recovery exercises on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, while there was no activity on The Strongest field on Monday. The fact that he didn't even put on his shoes in La Paz shows that the suspicion is actually greater than expected. And finally, it was learned that the 36-year-old striker had "surrendered".

At first, when deciding to bring Messi to Bolivia, coach Lionel Scaloni said: "If he goes it will be because he is there to compete." But now in Bolivia, that scenario has changed. The fact that he did not move even a little during the last training session, not even doing recovery exercises, is a sign that the captain is not healthy.

With Messi absent, Argentina's captain in the match against Bolivia is Angel Di Maria. And Messi's number 10 belongs to Angel Correa, in a shirt that he will definitely keep for life.

Argentina squad without Messi: Argentina: Emiliano Martinez; Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, Nicolas Otamendi, Nicolas Tagliafico; Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernandez, Alexis Mac Allister; Angel Di Maria, Julian Alvarez and Nicolas Gonzalez.