Messi returns to Full Training for Barcelona

Lionel Messi returned to full training with Barcelona on Wednesday as he nears a comeback from a calf injury.

The 32-year-old missed the whole of Barca’s pre-season programme and was not part of their squad for the 1-0 loss to Athletic Bilbao on the opening day of the Liga season.

Messi – whose last competitive outing was for Argentina in the Copa America third-place play-off victory over Chile, a match in which he was controversially sent off – has been doing solo exercises to build up his fitness and sat out the Liga champions’ first training session on Wednesday but was pictured with the rest of his team-mates later in the day.