Lionel Messi injury saga drags on with Barcelona winning just one in eight without crocked talisman
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LIONEL MESSI sat out Barcelona's 2-2 draw at Osasuna on Saturday as the La Liga champions once again showed their weakness without the star forward.
Yet to play this season, the Argentine's absence is being felt to an extent rarely seen before at the Camp Nou.
Barcelona's latest slip-up contributed to a terrible start to La Liga by their standards, picking up just four points from three games.
With Messi still unavailable due to a niggling calf problem, the Catalans have now won just one of the last eight games he has missed.
An arm injury in November saw the run begin as Inter Milan held Barca to a 1-1 draw in the Champions League.
A pair of January Copa del Rey clashes that saw the 32-year-old rested led to Levante and Sevilla scoring first leg wins, although the Blaugrana progressed anyway thanks to return game comebacks.
And he also sat out a 0-0 draw at Huesca and 2-0 defeat to Celta Vigo in the run-up to last season's crucial Champions League knockout ties.
This season, Messi is yet to play with his side losing 1-0 to Athletic Club, thrashing Real Betis 5-2 and drawing with Osasuna - which saw the favourites rely on 16-year-old Ansu Fati rescuing them a point.
Coach Ernesto Valverde hopes to have Messi back in time for the game with Valencia after the international break but there are big question marks over his exact return date.
It didn't used to be this way - a spell on the sidelines in 2015/16 saw the team's record IMPROVE when the striker was missing.
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That year saw them snatch 10 wins and two draws from the 13 games he didn't play in, due to a knee injury in the October of that campaign.
With it early days in this year's title battle, Barcelona will be thankful that Real Madrid have already sloppily dropped points of their own, in a 1-1 home draw with Valladolid.
However Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid are two from two ahead of their meeting with Eibar on Sunday night.