Saturday, January 8, 2022 at 13:28• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 13:35

Paris Saint-Germain will have to do without Lionel Messi in Sunday’s away game against Olympique Lyon. The Argentine star player is recovering from a corona infection and has not been found fit enough to play against Peter Bosz’s team. Messi spent the holidays in Argentina, where he became infected with the corona virus. He has since returned to Paris and has rejoined the selection.

Three days after Paris Saint-Germain broke the news of Messi’s positive test result, the club announced that the attacker tested negative. Thus, Messi returned to Paris to resume training. Messi gave a large private party in Rosario around the turn of the year to close the calendar year. Images of that party were brought out by the band Los Palmeras, who performed at the party location. Argentine media in particular massively shared the videos uploaded by band members. Messi may have contracted the virus on that occasion, but there is no clarity about that.

Messi already had to miss Monday’s cup match against Vannes (0-4 win) and now also misses the meeting with Lyon. The attacker resumed group training on Thursday, but has not recovered sufficiently from his infection. PSG report that Messi will continue to work on his recovery in the coming days. Mauricio Pochettino can also not rely on Ángel Di María, Julian Draxler, Danilo Pereira, Layvin Kurzawa and Gianluigi Donnarumma against Lyon. The five are in quarantine.

Neymar is also still out of the game at PSG. The Brazilian is recovering from an ankle injury he sustained in the away game against Saint-Etienne. The attacker left the game on a stretcher at the end of November. PSG hope that Neymar can resume group training in three weeks. The French superpower is sovereign in the lead in the Ligue 1 with ten points ahead of pursuer Olympique Marseille. Bosz has it a lot more difficult. The Dutchman occupies a disappointing thirteenth place with 24 points from 18 matches.