Barcelona's Lionel Messi expected to miss 3 weeks with groin strain-cbssports.com

Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi exited Wednesday's clash against Atletico Madrid with a strained thigh muscle and is expected to miss something like three weeks of action, the club announced. After being challenged lightly from Atletico's Diego Godin in Wednesdya's 1-1 draw, Messi pulled up slow and then went to the ground before being taken off.

Obviously it could have been much worse, but the hurt bug hits Messi again. He missed about two months of action last season with a knee injury, and was limited to only one World Cup qualifier game (against Uruguay) after injuring his groin. 

Let's check out the slate of games -- club and global duty -- Messi would have been in line to take part in the next three weeks:

• Sept. 24: Barcelona at Sporting (La Liga)
• Sept. 28: Barcelona at Gladbach (Champions League)
• Oct. 2: Barcelona at Celta Vigo (La Liga)
• Oct. 6: Argentina at Peru (World Cup qualifiers)
• Oct. 11: Paraguay at Argentina (World Cup qualifiers)
• Oct. 15: Deportivo at Barcelona (La Liga)

If he does neglect three weeks, he would be back around Oct. 12. That would place him right in between Argentina's game adjacent to Paraguay and Barcelona's home clash against Deportivo. As for now, it appears as if he'll miss clashes against Sporting and Celta in La Liga and against Gladbach in the Champions League. We'll see if Argentina plays it safe and leaves him off the roster for its upcoming World Cup qualifiers.