Messi misses Barcelona's training for personal reasons

FC Barcelona's Argentine star Lionel Messi missed out the Catalan football giants' training session on Thursday for personal reasons, after receiving permission from the technical staff.

Brazilian forward Neymar also missed Thursday's workouts after sustaining a muscle injury that stopped him from joining the group on Wednesday against Bayer Leverkusen in the last game of the Euroepan Champions League round stage, reports Efe.

Messi played every minute in Wednesday's game which ended 1-1, but it seemed that he was having some pain in his leg, although he did not ask to be replaced.

Barcelona announced on Thursday that Neymar suffered a minor injury to his left thigh, but did not reveal his expected recovery period, while noting that his medical condition will determine the time of his return.

Neymar's injury comes amid Barcelona's participation in the FIFA Club World Cup, which started earlier on Thursday in Japan, where the Blaugrana are travelling to meet the winner of the match between Mexico's Club America and China's Guangzhou Evergrande next Wednesday.