We've had a few Messi-free weeks since the end of the Copa America, and it's been awful. He and his Brazilian wing-counterpart Neymar skipped Barcelona's USA tour because of the Copa, so we haven't seen the Argentine wonder in action in more than a month.
Luckily, that's coming to an end. Messi and Neymar, as well as countrymen Javier Mascherano (Argentina) and Dani Alves (Brazil) have come back to Barcelona training, serving as a welcome reminder that the new season is almost upon us.
Neymar and Dani were scheduled to show up this week, but Messi and Mascherano were a bit of a surprise, as they weren's supposed to show up until next week. Obviously, Messi realized that even one more Messi-less week would be too much for soccer fans, so he came back early. He can do no wrong.
Contact The18 Staff Writer Sam Klomhaus at Klomhaus@The18.com or follow him on Twitter @SamKlomhaus