{"id":1390,"date":"2020-12-27T18:50:38","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T18:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/south-africa\/?p=1390"},"modified":"2020-12-27T18:08:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T18:08:50","slug":"lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>BARCELONA \u2013 Lionel Messi missed Barcelona\u2019s return to training on Monday after being granted permission by the club to stay in Argentina, and he will also be absent from Tuesday\u2019s La Liga match at home to Eibar.<\/p>\n<p>Barca said on Twitter that Messi, who is in the last year of his contract and is free to negotiate a move to rival clubs for free in 2021, would return to training after the Eibar game, meaning he will be back for their visit to Huesca on January 3.<\/p>\n<p>The Argentine returned to his home city of Rosario via private jet immediately after scoring in his side\u2019s 3-0 win away to Real Valladolid on December 22.<\/p>\n<p>The Catalan club did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Messi\u2019s absence, although Spanish media reports said it was to give the captain more time to rest in what has been a challenging season for their all-time top scorer.<\/p>\n<p>Messi has started 17 of Barca\u2019s 20 games in all competitions this season and although he is their top scorer with 10 goals, it has been his worst start to a campaign in 13 seasons in terms of goals and assists.<\/p>\n<p>Barca\u2019s captain said last week he had dragged the ill feeling from his attempt to leave in August into this season but was feeling happier now and was focused on helping the team, fifth in the league, challenge for trophies.<\/p>\n<p><b>Reuters<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. BARCELONA \u2013 Lionel Messi missed Barcelona\u2019s return to training on Monday after being granted permission by the club to stay in Argentina, and he will also be absent from Tuesday\u2019s La Liga match at home to Eibar. Barca said on Twitter that Messi, who is in the last year of his contract [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-1390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"BARCELONA \u2013 Lionel Messi missed Barcelona\u2019s return to training on Monday after being granted permission by the club to s ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BARCELONA \u2013 Lionel Messi missed Barcelona\u2019s return to training on Monday after being granted permission by the club to s ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-27T18:50:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/img-5fe8cd99d5dbf.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"651\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-27T18:50:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar\"},\"wordCount\":249,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/img-5fe8cd99d5dbf.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar\",\"name\":\"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/img-5fe8cd99d5dbf.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-27T18:50:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"BARCELONA \u2013 Lionel Messi missed Barcelona\u2019s return to training on Monday after being granted permission by the club to s ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/img-5fe8cd99d5dbf.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/img-5fe8cd99d5dbf.jpg\",\"width\":651,\"height\":366,\"caption\":\"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar - South Africa","description":"BARCELONA \u2013 Lionel Messi missed Barcelona\u2019s return to training on Monday after being granted permission by the club to s ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar","og_description":"BARCELONA \u2013 Lionel Messi missed Barcelona\u2019s return to training on Monday after being granted permission by the club to s ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2020-12-27T18:50:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":651,"height":366,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/img-5fe8cd99d5dbf.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar","datePublished":"2020-12-27T18:50:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar"},"wordCount":249,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/img-5fe8cd99d5dbf.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-South-Africa","South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar","name":"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/img-5fe8cd99d5dbf.jpg","datePublished":"2020-12-27T18:50:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"BARCELONA \u2013 Lionel Messi missed Barcelona\u2019s return to training on Monday after being granted permission by the club to s ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/img-5fe8cd99d5dbf.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2020\/12\/img-5fe8cd99d5dbf.jpg","width":651,"height":366,"caption":"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/lionel-messi-given-extended-break-will-miss-match-v-eibar#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lionel Messi given extended break, will miss match v Eibar"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}