Barcelona coach Luis Enrique was kind enough to give Lionel Messi Friday morning off training.
Lionel Messi not present in Barcelona training ahead of Atletico clash http://t.co/u5AhTVxtJN
— SPORT English (@Sport_EN) September 11, 2015
Not that the Argentina star was suffering an injury, though that might well have been the case were he not fortunate enough to have escaped unharmed from a dodgy pitch in Texas.
But it was later reported by Sport on Twitter that Messi was absent so that he could be with his wife Antonella Roccuzzo for the birth of his second child, Benjamin.