Leo Messi has admitted he feared he had sustained a serious, long term injury during last night’s Champions League game against Benfica.

The Barcelona forward went down under the challenge of Benfica goalkeeper Artur, towards the end of the game. He looked to be in some pain as he lay on the turf. "I sincerely thought it was the last ball I would be touching for a long time because of the pain," he said today, "I tried to go ahead and shoot but I didn't have the strength."

Barcelona were quick to calm fears over their prized asset and announced early today that the injury was short term, a bruising rather than any sort of serious ligament damage to the knee. Messi trained this morning at the gym in Cituat Esportiva, Barcelona’s training facility and the club would not rule out an appearance by the Argentinean in Sunday’s Liga game against Real Betis. Messi has not missed a game through injury in over two years.

Messi was one of the few first team regulars to play for Barcelona last night and many presumed he had played in the hope of passing Gerd Muller’s goal scoring record. He currently needs one goal to equal the record. Messi attempted to play down the speculation that the record has become his focus, and was the sole reason he played last night.

"Muller's record is not an obsession for me. It would be nice to break it, because the record has been there for many years. If it happens then good, but there is no problem if not."