AWAITED THREAD

In late 2015, Lionel Messi had an injury(Knee injury) which made him sit out of action for 51 dayshttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😱" title="Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht">.
He tore his Medial collateral ligamenthttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤯" title="Explodierender Kopf" aria-label="Emoji: Explodierender Kopf">.

This injury is responsible for Messi& #39;s quick decline at 28, not his age.

First I will explain the injury, then it& #39;s impact on football with proof(stats).

A tear to the medial collateral ligament in the knee can cause pain, swelling, and a lack of stability in the knee.

Ligaments consist of strong connective tissue. A sprain stretches the ligament, which can become loose after a severe injury. A tear is a more severe injury that splits the ligament in two. When someone tears the MCL, it may not hold the knee in place as securely.

A torn ligament severely limits knee movement https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😱" title="Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😱" title="Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht">.
So apparently, Messi has been playing without a good knee for about 5 yearshttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤯" title="Explodierender Kopf" aria-label="Emoji: Explodierender Kopf">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😔" title="Nachdenkliches Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Nachdenkliches Gesicht">.

The cure to the injury is in about 3 months, but guess what, Messi returned in just 51 dayshttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤯" title="Explodierender Kopf" aria-label="Emoji: Explodierender Kopf">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤯" title="Explodierender Kopf" aria-label="Emoji: Explodierender Kopf">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😱" title="Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht"> because he wants to play (Mentality Monsterhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤩" title="Vom Star geblendet" aria-label="Emoji: Vom Star geblendet">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤩" title="Vom Star geblendet" aria-label="Emoji: Vom Star geblendet">), therefore not letting in the injury heal completely https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😔" title="Nachdenkliches Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Nachdenkliches Gesicht">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😔" title="Nachdenkliches Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Nachdenkliches Gesicht">.

FINALLY, THE MOMENT YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FORhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧐" title="Gesicht mit Monokel" aria-label="Emoji: Gesicht mit Monokel">

Now the juicy part, how did this ultimately affect his game play?

We will compare how many headers he scored pre 2015 and post 2015.

Pre 2015 Messi scored a total of 20 headershttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😱" title="Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤯" title="Explodierender Kopf" aria-label="Emoji: Explodierender Kopf">, that& #39;s quite impressive considering his height.

Post 2015, he& #39;s scored just 4https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😔" title="Nachdenkliches Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Nachdenkliches Gesicht">, the main reason being, his knee not being able to generate enough power to jump https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😔" title="Nachdenkliches Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Nachdenkliches Gesicht">.

As you can see, he used to score more headers, then all of a sudden, in 2016 his header goals massively reduced, the reason - His knee injury https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😔" title="Nachdenkliches Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Nachdenkliches Gesicht">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😔" title="Nachdenkliches Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Nachdenkliches Gesicht">.

MESSI was the BEST most COMPLETE player in the world in 2014 and early 2015 before he had that injury.

End of thread.

Likes and Rt& #39;s appreciated.

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What& #39;s more impressive is how he& #39;s still managed to be the best player in the world for the past 5 years despite having that serious injury.

GOAT https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🐐" title="Ziege" aria-label="Emoji: Ziege"> https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👑" title="Krone" aria-label="Emoji: Krone">