One of the things that isn't talked about enough is how Messi came back from severe injuries that left him sidelined for months. While some players would have had a notable decrease in quality after some of those injuries, Messi only seemed to get stronger every time. So let's take a look at some of those injuries and how Messi performed afterward.
His first major injury happened in February 2001, playing for the Infantil B, where he fractured his fibula in a quick play. His dad asked him if he wanted to go back, but he was firm in triumphing in Barcelona. The following season, 2001/02, he scored 21 goals in 14 games with the Infantil A, and he was so good he was promoted that same season to Cadete B, but he wasn't able to play any official games due to burocratic problems, but he did play amazingly with the Cadete A next season, bagging 37 goals in 30 games without losing a single game in the season.
His second major injury was in the 2005/06 season, where he got a torn muscle bundle against Chelsea in the away game for the UCL Round of 16. He was out for 74 days, making him lose out on the rest of the season. Not long after the injury, Messi played in the 2006 World Cup and established himself as one of the best youngsters not only in the tournament, but in the world as well.
The next one happened in the 2006/07 season. This one left him out for a record 87 days and a total of 18 games out according to Transfermakt. Not long after recovering, he had a memorable hat-trick against Real Madrid and ended up being Barcelona's most valuable player that season.
In the 2007/08 season, Messi suffered from two bad injuries in the span of a few months. The first one was a hamstring injury that left him out for a month, including 6 games. Before he could properly recover, he got injured again, this time from a torn muscle bundle, which sidelined him for more than a month and 8 games in total. What followed was a great performance in the 2008 Olympics and then the 2008/09 season, the beginning of the Guardiola era, which we all know how it went for Messi.
He wouldn't have problems with injuries until 2013. In that year, he spent 1/3rd of the year injured. But even then, Messi was very close to winning the Ballon d'Or, in a year where he scored 45 goals and made 16 assists, making a total of 61 G/A, being MoTM in almost half of his games and making 3.7 dribbles per game.
In the 2015/16 season, once again he had some injuries in that period, being sidelined for a total of 62 days, or 12 games. Even then, Messi was the best player in La Liga by some distance and also the best player in the Champions League until Barcelona got kicked out.
Since then, Messi hasn't really had any significant injury problems, but when you look at his career, and how many injuries could have severely affected him, it makes him all the more impressive.
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