As Barça celebrated, Lionel Messi passed through antidoping... again

The match had just finished at El Madrigal and Barcelona's players were celebrating on the pitch, aware of the importance of making the final of the Copa del Rey. The first objective of the season had been completed and in an impeccable manner as well: eight wins from eight games. 

Inside the dressing room, the euphoria was tempered slightly. Why? A teammate, Sergio Busquets, was not in the mood for too many celebrations after picking up an ankle injury, putting his participation in the upcoming matches against Manchester City and Real Madrid into doubt. Sad, dejected and downcast, Busquets was being comforted by his teammates.

Someone who wasn't even able to be with the team while they were celebrating was Lionel Messi. And not because he wanted to disengage from them or to display a maverick attitude, but because the draw would have it that he was one of those chosen to pass through antidoping. We already know that this season the Argentine is not having much luck when it comes to being chosen for this. 

("Doping control. Of the five chosen, I was the only one who had to give urine and blood samples...bit strange isn't it?" Messi wrote on his Instagram account after a surprise test in December.) 

To make matters worse, the test was delayed because the player was unable to urinate, meaning he missed all the celebrations after an important victory. Javier Mascherano did pass though antidoping with Messi, but he was able to make it into the dressing room much sooner. In fact, Barça's flight back ended up being delayed by almost an hour because they had to patiently wait for Messi to finish with antidoping.