Lionel Messi has made a spectacular start to life at Inter Miami, but the Argentine attacker's participation in his new club's trip to Charlotte in October is already in doubt.
Following his wonderful winner off the bench on his debut in the Leagues Cup against Mexican side Cruz Azul on Friday night, Messi added two more in a 4-0 victory at home to Atlanta United on Tuesday.
That saw the Florida franchise advance to the knockout stages of the competiton, which features MLS and Mexican clubs together and runs until August 19th.
After that, the MLS season will resume, with Miami at home to Charlotte FC on August 21st.
Miami and Charlotte meet again in North Carolina on October 21st and Messi's participation in that match is in doubt due to the club's artificial pitch.
Asked if clubs could replace their artificial pitches, which have been known to cause injuries in the past, MLS commissioner Don Garber told The Athletic : "That's going to be the decision of every club when they do travel to those stadiums that don’t have natural grass.
"My expectations are that that's what they will do, but there's a lot of work that needs to be done to figure all of that out. MLS promotes a lot of international games and we have been able to bring natural grass into those stadiums, but we've never done that for a regular season game."
However, Charlotte have now confirmed they have no plans to change their pitch for Messi's arrival in October.
"All of our Major League Soccer matches are scheduled to be played on turf and there is no plan to change to natural grass," a team spokesperson said in a statement.
Charlotte FC, which shares a stadium with NFL's Carolina Panthers, switched to grass for a friendly against Chelsea last year and two recent Gold Cup matches for the USA men's national team.
The North Carolina club are one of six MLS sides currently using artificial grass and that includes Atlanta United, where Messi and Inter Miami are due to play on September 16th.
Messi has not said whether he or not he is willing to play on such surfaces, but Garber noted that other top international stars like Thierry Henry and Kaka have done during their time in MLS.
"I think a lot of international stars come into Major League Soccer and they are either intrigued or concerned about not playing on grass," he said.
"And then you see some of the best players who've ever played the game, the Henrys of the world and Kakas of the world, who played on turf. So I think that's a process that will have to play out over time."
