MIAMI — Inter Miami coach Tata Martino on Friday delivered promising news about Lionel Messi’s ankle injury: After five weeks training only in the gym, the Argentine captain began on-field individual workouts early this week, it “shouldn’t be long” before he returns to full training, and yes, he will play again this MLS season.

But he remains out for the home game Saturday against FC Cincinnati. Inter Miami, which sits in first place in the Eastern Conference with nine games remaining, is expected to clinch a playoff spot this weekend either with a win or a half-dozen other scenarios involving other teams’ results.

Messi, 37, sustained the ankle ligament injury while playing for Argentina in the Copa America final against Colombia on July 14.

“There is no estimated date for his return,” Martino said. “It’ll depend on how he feels after he begins training sessions on the field. He is not training with the group yet, but he has been out on the field working with a physio for the past three or four days and is progressing well.”

Martino added that part of an athlete’s recovery is physical, the other part is mental, and Messi is recovering in both ways as he returns to field workouts.

Messi’s omission from Argentina’s national team for upcoming World Cup qualifying matches in early September was expected, Martino said, because he is still not in condition to play.

After the game against Cincinnati, Miami plays on the road against the Chicago Fire on Aug. 31 and then has two weeks off for the FIFA break before resuming Sept. 14 at home against the Philadelphia Union. Barring any setbacks, that game seems a logical guess for Messi’s return.

In the meantime, Inter Miami enters the final stretch of the season determined to win its first MLS Cup and the Supporters Shield, awarded to the team with the best regular season record.

Martino said the team has gotten over its 3-2 loss to the Columbus Crew in the Leagues Cup Round of 16, lamenting that they had to play such a formidable opponent so early in the tournament.

“It was actually a game that strengthened us rather than setting us back,” Martino said. The coach has heaped praise on the Crew all season and said it should be noted that his team played well for nearly 70 minutes against the defending MLS champion.

“It’s true that 60 or 70 good minutes is not enough to win a game, but it’s also not normal for a team to score three goals against you in 10 minutes,” Martino said. “It is unrealistic to think that you can manage a game for 90 minutes against Columbus. And by that I don’t mean just possessing the ball, I mean managing the game without the ball, too. Against Columbus, we did it for 67 minutes.

“In my estimation, Columbus seems like a team that came from another league, not from this one. Even though they don’t have national team players and don’t lose players for FIFA dates, they play as if they had big stars. All of that is a tribute to their coach [Wilfried Nancy].”

Inter Miami is highly motivated to beat second-place Cincinnati on Saturday and avenge a humiliating 6-1 July road loss, Miami’s most lopsided loss of the season and the first time in club history the team conceded six goals.

Miami was missing six starters for that game: Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, Diego Gomez, Matias Rojas and Tomas Aviles. Also, Sergio Busquets was ejected with 30 minutes remaining in that game.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to go in too deep into that game,” said winger Robert Taylor. “We have played many good games since then, so it’s not on our minds anymore. It would be different if that was a turning point and we didn’t win any more games after that, but we’ve won games and done fairly well.”

Taylor added that one of the keys to beating Cincinnati is containing Lucho Acosta, the Argentine midfielder, who leads MLS with 19 assists and has scored 11 goals.

“Everything flows through Acosta, so if we can somehow block him and make sure he doesn’t have a great game, that will help us win,” Taylor said.

Other players to watch are Yuya Kubo, Luca Orellano, and former Inter Miami captain DeAndre Yedlin.

Tickets for the Inter Miami vs. Cincinnati game are available at TicketMaster and secondary ticket markets.

Uruguay vs. Guatemala friendly

The national teams of Uruguay and Guatemala will play a friendly match Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. at Chase Stadium.

Uruguayan, which finished in third place in the Copa America this summer, will use the match as a warmup for World Cup 2026 qualifiers against Paraguay and Venezuela on Sept. 4 and 7, respectively.

Meanwhile, Guatemala is preparing for the CONCACAF Nations League and will play two matches in League A Group A against Martinique and Costa Rica on Sept. 5 and 9.

Tickets for Uruguay vs Guatemala are available on TicketMaster.

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