Before he was the the fourth times Ballon d’Or winner, Lionel Messi the unbreakable was a very frail player. So what happened?

When Pep Guardiola arrived at the head of Barcelona, Tito Vilanova gave him a brilliant idea: to associate Messi with the duo Xavi-Iniesta, by playing him in the midfield.

In 2005, that’s 8 years ago already, Frank Rijkaard, who was the Barca coach would only use Messi very little. He had no choice. La Pulga was always prone to injury.

His first big injury was at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea in the Champions League. On 7^th March 2006, Messi ends up with a five centimeters wound on his leg. Jose Mourinho, ‘The Special One’ blames him for overacting , but the reality is that Argentinian will spend two and a half months in hospital.

So what was the problem? Messi was a victim of his own anatomy.

“He has the muscles of a sprinter, thick muscles that require a lot of oxygen and heal more slowly than those of less explosive athletes. ”

Explosive is a good word to describe Messi. He always wants wants too much. But his zeal costs him to miss the big games, such as the Champions League final against Arsenal played at the Stade de France. That evening, Barça won its second Champions League in its history, but Messi was sulking like a child.

“Every time he got injured it’s because he came back very quickly, too quickly” He did not have the experience to manage injuries. His desire to play meant he entered a vicious circle, because he ended up being injured quickly, ”

He got injured too many times because he did not give himself enough recovery time. So what Barca did is at the time was to forbid any activity for 20 days and the doctors set up a specific muscle recovery plan. He had to stop playing. It was not pleasant, but it was the only way he could come back at 100% of his capacity.

When Pep Guardiola arrived at the head of Barcelona, Tito Vilanova gave him a brilliant idea: to associate Messi with the duo Xavi-Iniesta, by playing him in the midfield.

When Pep Guardiola arrived at the head of Barcelona, Tito Vilanova gave him a brilliant idea- to associate Messi with the duo Xavi-Iniesta, by playing him in the midfield.

With this new system, Messi became more consistent, less injured, therefore more dangerous. Guardiola had learnt his physical limitations, which allowed him to get even more of his enormous potential. With the new positioning, the player no longer misses games, he scores goals, start breaking records and soon wins his first Ballon d’Or.

Something else that Guardiola did upon arrival at the club, he asks his medical staff a check-up of his players. Messi are terrible. The player has a the eating habits of a 10 year old. Its diet is made of grilled meat, coca cola and or a Spanish sausage between two pieces of bread for a snack.

The medical staff then imposes a fixed time to eat in the canteen of the club. This is where Messi will make a great discovery: fish.

He had hardly ever eaten fish in his life. This was very new to him.

With his repositioning and the new diet, the player plays 60 games in a row without any injury. For the first time in his career, he even reaches 60 games played in 2008/2009. Since then, he explodes the number of games played each season.

The last significant injury for Messi was way back on the 19th September 2010. Two short weeks in hospital and the boy was already back. Since then, La Pulga has a record of 300 games played without ever having serious physical failure. Amazing transformation don’t you think?

Irony, coincidence? Messi got injured yesterday! Just a few hours after we wrote this article!