On track! Lionel Messi abandons his crutches as injury recovery continues

Lionel Messi has taken the next step in his recovery process from his knee injury. The striker is out of action for nearly two months, of which around two weeks have expired. His recovery is sticking to schedule, with the player leaving behind his crutches. 

The defeat by Sevilla, after two scraped wins against Bayer Leverkusen and Las Palmas, show how much the team is missing him. He was injured in the latter game on September 26, with a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee. 

Now he will progress to more intensive physiotherapy work. His rehabilitiation work will be with physiotherapist Roger Girones. The plan is for Messi to be able to run continuously, within a fortnight. Then he will progress to the crucial stage, where he can be worked back into the group. That will take around two more weeks - which takes us to six. So he would then have one more week to pick up the speed of training annd prepare to return.

Messi is aware that he should not try to rush his recovery as a relapse to the injury would be terrible.