Lionel Messi will have a considerably thinner squad around him when Inter Miami host Columbus Crew this weekend, with the club set to be without seven players called up by their respective national teams during the international break.
Germán Berterame (Mexico), Dayne St. Clair (Canada), Matías Galarza (Paraguay), Fricio Caicedo (Ecuador), and Lovend’s Delinois (Haiti) will all report to senior national team duty, while Daniel Pinter and Alexander Shaw have been called into the United States’ U-20 and U-19 squads, respectively.
The timing lines up with one of the most significant windows on the international calendar this year, one that will also mark the end of an era for Argentina. Messi is set to play his final match for the national team on October 6 against Benin at the Monumental, closing out an international career that began over two decades ago.
Despite both being named in Argentina’s squad for this window, Messi and Rodrigo De Paul will still be present for the Columbus Crew match, since the national team has only cleared them to join up for the farewell fixture against Benin, skipping the earlier friendlies against Bolivia and Burkina Faso.
A shorthanded Inter Miami squad
The absences don’t stop at the international call-ups. Inter Miami will also be without Mateo Silvetti and Tadeo Allende, both ruled out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery, along with Santiago Morales, who continues to nurse a quad injury.
Ian Fray adds to the list after exiting the draw with Nashville SC with a groin problem, leaving the club to navigate the Columbus Crew match with a squad stretched thin on multiple fronts.
On top of that, new signing Riquelme Fillipi remains unavailable as well, still waiting on his International Transfer Certificate and P-1 visa before he can be cleared to play.
With so many pieces missing at once, the Columbus Crew match will be as much a test of Inter Miami’s depth as anything else, coming right before Messi departs for what will be his final send-off with Argentina.
