Messi avoided two months out

The Argentine was forced off in the first half of the heavyweight clash at the Camp Nou after injuring his right arm. Hours later, the club confirmed that their star was facing three weeks out with a fractured arm, meaning he will miss next week's El Clásico clash with Real Madrid.

That will come as a hammer blow to Barca, with the 31-year-old currently one of the top goalscorers in the Spanish top flight as well as the top assist maker. Indeed, Messi had already found the net against the Andalusians when he was forced off.

However, the three week lay-off could have been much worse for Messi, particularly when you see the slow-motion footage of the injury, which sees the Argentina star's arm bend in an unnatural manner.

The partial fracture left Messi in significant pain, but had it been a complete break with a displacement of the bone it would have been a matter of months out, rather than weeks.

Speaking to Argentine news outlet 'Olé', doctor Sergio Caivano explained how Messi would have needed an operation to screw the bone back into place if it had become displaced.

"The reality is that if the injury is very close to the wrist of elbow, it can cause problems. It's very difficult to diagnose without seeing the injury, but if they're saying that he'll be out for around three weeks then it was probably a distal-third forearm fracture," Caivano explained.

"The problem is the return to training, because he has to jog and that's going to hurt because of the impact of the body against the ground. Barcelona have the perfect team for these cases, special bikes with which players can exercise without suffering from pain and thus allow player to maintain their aerobic fitness levels."