After nearly two weeks out, Lionel Messi returned to action for Inter Miami with a goal against LA Galaxy on Saturday night. The Argentine forward had suffered a minor muscle injury during a Leagues Cup match against Necaxa, but he has now fully recovered. Still, the situation raises the question: has he spent more time sidelined by injuries than Cristiano Ronaldo?
According to the specialized website Transfermarkt, including the muscle issue suffered this month, Messi has missed a total of 915 days due to injury over the course of his career, from 2004 to 2025. That amounts to approximately 12.05% of the time he has spent as a professional player.
The earliest recorded injury for the Argentine star came in February 2006, when a hamstring strain kept him out for 11 days during the 2005-06 season with Barcelona. Since then, Messi has sustained a total of 53 different injuries over the years, which caused him to miss 196 matches.
How much time has Cristiano Ronaldo missed due to injury?
Cristiano Ronaldo’s injury numbers, especially compared to Lionel Messi, are far more modest—a positive note for the Portuguese star. According to Transfermarkt, over the course of his career, CR7 has suffered 29 different injuries that have kept him off the field for a total of 482 days, representing just 5.76% of his time as a professional player. In that span, the forward missed 85 matches.
Cristiano Ronaldo has spent less time injured than Messi in his career.
The numbers are clear: Ronaldo has had significantly fewer physical issues than Messi throughout his career. Even though Cristiano made his professional debut two years earlier than Leo, he has missed less than half as much time and significantly fewer matches than his longtime rival.
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However, when it comes to average recovery time per injury, Ronaldo and Messi are almost identical. The Argentine star has needed an average of 17.2 days to recover from each injury, while the Portuguese forward has required an average of 16.6 days.
The most serious injuries of Messi and Ronaldo
Among the 53 injuries Messi has suffered during his professional career, one stands out as the most serious. Between November 2006 and February 2007, Lionel was sidelined for 88 days due to a broken fifth metatarsal in his left foot. That injury caused him to miss 28 matches for Barcelona and Argentina.
The most severe injury of the 29 sustained by Cristiano Ronaldo also came during his early years as a professional. In the 2008-09 season, he was out for 71 days following ankle surgery. However, since much of that time fell during the offseason between July and September 2008, CR7 missed only eight matches for Manchester United and Portugal.
