Messi steps up recovery regime

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Lionel Messi's road to recovery took a step forward on Friday as he strolled onto the training pitch for the first time to work on his individual programme.

The Argentinian star suffered his injury in the closing moments of Barça's win against Atlético de Madrid last weekend and has spent the last few days behind closed doors. Now he has moved up a gear and moved outside along with a coach and worked away from the rest of the first-team squad as he battles to regain full fitness.

Two games
Messi is combining the training that he is doing on the pitch with an intense regime in the Blaugrana gymnasium at the Ciutat Esportiva complex. After he had completed his exercises on Friday he stayed out and watched the other players go through their warm-up exercises and ball games.

Medics predicted after the initial round of tests that Messi would miss two games for pep Guardiola's side and has already sat out the midweek encounter with Sporting Gijón.