File picture of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi playing with a ball during a training session, at the Joan Gamper training grounds outside Barcelona, Spain.

DPA/Madrid


Lionel Messi is looking forward to returning to the Camp Nou and to the Champions League Tuesday, when defending champions Barcelona take on Roma.
Barca need one more point to secure the top spot in Group E, and Messi wants to help them to get it.
He will however probably start on the subs’ bench Tuesday, the same as Saturday in El Clasico at Real Madrid as the Argentine idol was out of action for eight weeks with sprained ligaments in his left knee.
It was the longest injury lay-off of his illustrious career so far - though he did not need to undergo surgery.
messi has featured only once the Champions League this season, the 1-1 draw at Roma on matchday one.
“It is wonderful to be back with the squad and playing again,” Messi wrote after returning to the fray with a late cameo role in Barca’s 4-0 thumping of Real Madrid.  
“Eight weeks is a long time to be out, too long really. But now I am back and keen to help the team again.”
Not that things have gone very badly for Barca without him - far from it.
Fellow South Americans Neymar and Luis Suarez have stepped into the breach imperiously, as Real found to their cost Saturday.
Neymar is top of the Liga scoring chart with 12 goals and Suarez is second with 11.
Messi came off the bench Saturday with half an hour left with the score 3-0 and promptly helped Suarez to make it 4-0 with his second goal of the night.
“Luis and Neymar have been wonderful lately. Now I want to get back to playing with them, because we enjoy ourselves so much together,” Messi wrote.
Former Real coach Fabio Capello raised eyebrows after El Clasico by saying that Messi’s injury had actually helped Suarez and Neymar “because they have not had to be always looking for him and opening spaces for him, as they have to do when he is playing.”
This controversial opinion was quickly shouted down in Barcelona, especially by Neymar.
“I can’t wait for Leo to return to complete fitness,” the young Brazilian said. “It is a privilege to play alongside him and Luis, we really have a great time together.”
The South American trio was the key to Barca winning their fifth Champions trophy last season. Neymar and Messi finished as joint top scorers with Cristiano Ronaldo on 10 goals apiece, while Suarez chipped in with seven goals.
It was the first Champions League triumph for Neymar and Suarez but the fourth for Messi, following Barca’s wins in 2006, 2009 and 2011, in which his contribution was immense.  
“It is one of my favourite competitions,” he said last week.
“You have to face the best players from all around the world and also the strongest teams...It is extremely difficult to win the Champions.”
Still aged 28, the little Argentine is well placed to equal and maybe even beat the all-time winners record of Francisco Gento, who helped Real to triumph six times between 1956 and 1966.
And then there’s the small matter of taking back first place in the all-time Champions scoring chart.
For several years Messi was above Cristiano Ronaldo in the chart, but the Portuguese hitman has taken advantage of Messi’s absence to go ahead of him, 82 goals to 77.