Barcelona is not taking any risks with Lionel Messi it seems after the captain again missed training on Monday.

Messi did join in with the group last week but then missed Saturday's session. However, manager Ernesto Valverde has denied the Argentine has suffered an injury setback after leaving him out of the squad to face Real Betis on Sunday.

Valverde talked about Messi in his post-match press conferenceand said he was omitted because the club did not want to take any risks withthe GOAT.

Valverde said, "There wasn't a positive feeling. He hasn't had a relapse of the injury. We already said that we wouldn't rush any player. What we wanted to avoid was a relapse."

Barcelona coped pretty well without Messi this time around, bagging five goals against Betis to pick up their first win of the season in some style.

The team have a rest day on Tuesday but will be back at it for the rest of the week before they head to Osasuna on Saturday for their third La Liga match of the season.