The Royal Moroccan Football Federation has asked for an explanation, after knowing that Argentina's best player is not participating to the friendly scheduled Tuesday, against the Atlas Lions, reports sports platform Sport. On Sunday and in a statement relayed by MAP news agency, the Moroccan Federation announced that it had been officially informed by the match agent that Messi's absence was due to injury on Friday 22 March during the friendly match against Venezuela, which forced «La Pulga» to join FC Barcelona for treatment. On the weekend, the Argentina Football Federation said in a statement that the Barcelona star will not be able to captain the Argentinian national football team in its friendly against Morocco. This injury will not affect his participation in Barcelona's match against Espanyol on March the 30th, the same source said. The Spanish club Barcelona also announced on its website, Friday, that Messi «did not have the return to international action that he would have wanted». The same source added that an «injury picked up on Friday night means he will miss Argentina's game against Morocco on Tuesday». For the record, Argentina lost in its friendly against Venezuela 1-3. The friendly football match between Morocco and Argentina will be played on March 26, 2019, at Tangier's Grand Stadium. The match is part of Morocco's preparation for the upcoming African Cup of Nations (CAN-2019), scheduled in Egypt.
