{"id":16978,"date":"2025-07-23T21:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T21:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/16978\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T21:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T21:54:09","slug":"lionel-messi-at-risk-of-suspension-after-withdrawing-from-mls-all-star-game-video-jordi-alba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/16978\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi at risk of suspension after withdrawing from MLS All-Star game, video, Jordi Alba"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lionel Messi and Inter Miami teammate Jordi Alba could face a suspension after withdrawing from Major League Soccer\u2019s All-Star game.<\/p>\n<p>Argentina superstar Messi and Alba had been due to start for a combined MLS team which will face a squad representing Mexico\u2019s Liga-MX in Austin later Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>However, a league source said Inter Miami had notified officials on Wednesday that both Messi and Alba had been pulled from the event.<\/p>\n<p>Under MLS rules, both Messi and Alba could be given a one-game suspension unless they have a valid reason for the withdrawal, such as an injury.<\/p>\n<p>A league source told AFP however no decision on possible disciplinary action would be taken until MLS officials had spoken to Inter Miami to confirm the circumstances of the withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>Get all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/newsletter-sign-up?utm_source=FootballArticle&amp;utm_medium=TextLink&amp;utm_campaign=signup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Sign up now &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752977588_817_poster-fallback.png\"\/>Lionel Messi of Inter Miami CF. Photo by Kevin C. Cox\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The duo\u2019s participation in Wednesday\u2019s mid-season exhibition game had been under a cloud after Miami coach Javier Mascherano indicated at the weekend he wanted Messi and Alba to rest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe players are called up. I\u2019d prefer they rest, but it\u2019s not my decision,\u201d Mascherano said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know how important the All-Star Game is, and as far as I know, there\u2019s no decision from the club &#8211; everything continues as normal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Messi, 38, and Alba, 36, have a history of recent injury problems while Inter Miami has faced a gruelling schedule which included participation in the recent FIFA Club World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi and Inter Miami teammate Jordi Alba could face a suspension after withdrawing from Major League Soccer\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-16978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}