The S-Thread #2 For 12/5/12: The Update on The Lion King

Photo from Getty Images and UEFA.com

With the whole soccer/football world up in shock when the news broke or while they witnessed it happen right away, it seems from preliminary reports that Lionel Messi may have suffered just a knock this evening at the Nou Camp against Benfica tonight.

The only thing in jeopardy is not a season ending injury for the Argentine legend, but a chance to break Gerd Mueller most goals in a single calendar year record. He was just one behind the German figure coming into the day (85-84), but being stretched off seems to put him in jeopardy of playing in Barcelona's final five matches of the year.

As you can see up above, three matches in La Liga BBVA, while the other two are the tie versus Cordoba in the Copa del Rey Round of 16.

Messi is just realistically one match from breaking the record, and tonight was suppose to be that night.

It still could easily happen, but that's only if he is healthy enough for any of them.

But for Barcelona, luckily Messi's injury isn't too severe and that it occurred as they enter their dead time of their season.

The group stages of the Champions League are over for them, they have a fine 6-point lead over Atletico and 11 point advantage over main rivals Real Madrid in La Liga with 3 games left in the year (though one against Atletico on December 16), they have a manageable Copa match vs Cordoba, and they aren't in the Club World Cup this year.

All in all, outside of the Atletico contest, that is certainly a manageable schedule for Tito Villnaueva's men to close the year without Messi. It certainly helps having both Carles Puyol and Gerald Pique back to have at least full strength in the back while being without the services of Earth's finest player now and maybe in history.

Plus with how listless Atletico once again looked against Real last week, the other big team for Madrid still don't seem to be truly ready to challenge the Big 2 in Espana yet, even with the tremendous start to the year they have had.