Christophe Galtier announced that Lionel Messi will start for Paris Saint-Germain against Ajaccio tomorrow evening during a press conference attended by Get French Football News. The Frenchman said that he spoke to Lionel Messi in the week and has decided that he is in the right mental state to start the match.
“I spoke to Lionel Messi about his return on Tuesday to see what kind of mindset he was in,” said Galtier, “He was very calm, and I thought that that he was very motivated to play and determined to win another trophy. Yes, he will start tomorrow.”
The Argentine was present during the training session on Friday, having re-joined collective training with Les Parisiens on Tuesday.
The 2022 World Cup winner cut short a two-week suspension for an un-authorised visit to Saudi Arabia, after which he formally apologised in a video. The apology was enough to see Messi return to individual training on Monday, during the rest of the squad’s recovery, before being re-united with his teammates on Tuesday morning.
Despite his return to the squad, and Messi is still expected to leave PSG this summer, although his destination remains unclear. L’Équipe have reported that the former Barcelona forward has a verbal agreement in place to join the Saudi Arabian top flight, but contacted by Get French Football News, his entourage have denied any such agreement.
GFFN | George Boxall
