Ernesto Valverde Reassures Fans on Lionel Messi's Condition as Copa del Rey Final Approaches

Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde has admitted that he could rest Lionel Messi and some of his other key players for Tuesday night's La Liga game away at Celta Vigo, but insisted that the Argentine will have enough energy to give his best for his country at the World Cup.

Messi missed Argentina's pair of friendlies in the most recent international break, watching on as his team were demolished 6-1 by Spain at the Wanda Metropolitano, and Barcelona's sizeable lead in La Liga has allowed Valverde to consider managing his leading man's workload.

Valverde urges Argentina to keep calm over Messi's World Cup fitness pic.twitter.com/6kEDbbt8LS
— GOAL News (@GoalNews) April 16, 2018

Quoted by Marca after his pre-match press conference, Valverde said: "It's a possibility that Messi rests, like others. There's nothing to worry about, the other day he played a good game, and they're calm in Argentina because Messi still has a lot of energy left for the World Cup."

A shock defeat to Roma in the Champions League last week has also seen Messi's upcoming workload shift down a notch, with only this weekend's Copa del Rey final and the possibility of an unbeaten league season left to play for.

"We come from intense matches and on Tuesday we will have to make some changes to refresh the team," Valverde continued."We have already faced them three times this year, they are having a good season and fighting for Europe. For us it is an encouragement to fight for these three points, but it will be a difficult match."

The Barca boss refused to be drawn on Andres Iniesta's recent comments on his potential departure at the end of the season, saying: "It has not happened yet. There have already been other players that have left and life goes on. So far it has not been announced and we are not going to speculate on this issue."