Busy 2024 looms for Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, and club is figuring out how to make it work

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Inter Miami is putting together its preseason schedule, one that will likely have somewhere between four and six games early next year. There’s a 34-game Major League Soccer season. There’ll be appearances in the Leagues Cup, the U.S. Open Cup and the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Add it all up, and Lionel Messi and many of his Inter Miami teammates will be asked to play a ton of soccer in 2024. And keeping Messi and other players healthy is part of the team’s thinking as it formulates its plan for next year.