Messi losing fitness battle to face Real Madrid in El Clasico

goal.com

The Barcelona star is very unlikely to be available to face Rafael Benitez's side in the November 21 clash, with the forward still recovering from a knee injury

Lionel Messi is looking increasingly unlikely to be fit enough to face Real Madrid in the first El Clasico of the 2015-16 La Liga campaign, Goal understands.

Barcelona forward Messi suffered a knee ligament injury in the 2-1 win over Las Palmas back in September and with the crunch clash at the Bernabeu taking place on November 21, the Argentine is behind schedule in his bid to face Rafael Benitez's side.

The Catalan giants initially ruled out Messi for a period of six to eight weeks and with the 28-year-old yet to have returned to training, he is running out of time to reach the required level of fitness to feature in one of the biggest club fixtures in world football.

Former head of medical services at Barcelona Jordi Ardevol told Goal: "He will only be able to be on the pitch if he takes part in some entire training sessions. We need to be careful and if he is not accomplishing the minimum [medical] requests, the best thing to do is not play because he could easily relapse on his injury."

Messi has, as expected, been excused from the Argentina squad for World Cup qualifiers against Brazil and Colombia in November, with the Clasico meeting with Madrid coming just four days after the clash with the Colombians.

Neymar and Luis Suarez have been in sensational form in Messi's absence, with the duo both on the scoresheet in Saturday's 2-0 win over Getafe that ensured Luis Enrique side's kept pace with Madrid at the top of the table.

Suarez's goal was the Uruguayan's eighth in seven games since Messi limped off against Las Palmas, while Neymar has been involved in nine of the Catalans' last 10 goals in La Liga (with six goals and three assists).

Barca boss Enrique, meanwhile, has seemingly supported suggestions that Messi will be unavailable to face Madrid, insisting that he will not rush his star man back to fitness before he is ready.

He told reporters on October 30: "There is no set recovery date for Messi. The most important thing for him is to be 100 per cent fit again. It does not matter when he returns. The season is still long."