Messi out for three weeks

Messi's injury will keep him out for three weeks according to La Liga pundit and journalist Guilleme Balague.



Messi had to be carried off on a stretcher in injury time after a wild tackle by Atletico's Tomas Ujfalusi in Barca's 2-1 win.



The injury seems not to be as bad as first feared (or looked from the camera shot of Messi's ankle) but it will keep Messi out the next five or six games, including Barcelona's Champions League away match in Russia, against the difficult Rubin Kazan.



"We are happy with the win but sad about Messi,"  Pep Guardiola told journalists moments after the full-time whistle.

"The TV pictures speak for themselves. It is not only Cristiano Ronaldo who needs protecting. The referees should protect all the players."

These kind of tackles don't belong in modern football and the fact that Tomas Ujfalusi received a straight red doesn't make everything okay, this just emphasises Pep Guardiola's point about player protection. If players think that tackles like the one on Lionel Messi will only warrant a yellow or at worst a red, then we're bound to see more of these cynical tackles. Surely, more harsher punishment must be implemented.