FLORAL HILLS, FLA.— Before their last Copa America group play game on Saturday, Lionel Messi and the rest of the Argentina national team got some bad news:

Messi will not play because he hurt his right thigh and abductor earlier this week against Chile. He will rest. And because of the delays in their last game, Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni will not be able to play in the game against Peru at Hard Rock Stadium, CONMEBOL said Friday.

The good news is that Argentina got good news about Messi’s health checkup on Thursday. Argentine news site TYCSports said Messi’s hurt is not serious and the strain is not too bad.

In the nine days between games, Messi will have time to rest and get ready to lead Argentina in their Copa America semifinal match on July 4 in Houston, Texas, against either Ecuador or Mexico.

“Leo was having trouble in the last game.” He’s not going to be with us at the next one. “We’re taking things one day at a time and waiting to see how he improves,” Messi’s Argentine assistant Walter Samuel said in a news conference on Friday.

Anyway, Messi’s absence from Saturday’s game against Peru is a letdown, and not just for Argentine fans who are going from city to city to see the World Cup winners play. It’s also a letdown for soccer fans here in the US.

Vivid Seats told USA TODAY Sports on Friday that after Messi got hurt, the average price of tickets for the Argentina vs. Peru game dropped 22%.

Vivid Seats says that this match had the highest average ticket price of the tournament, at $515. This is almost $100 more than the match between Argentina and Chile and almost $200 more than the first game of the tournament against Canada.

The match between Argentina and Peru was also the most popular with Argentine fans, selling more than twice as many tickets as the match between Chile. The only other match that sold more tickets was the Copa America final.

To put it simply, Messi’s new home country people wanted to see him play.

In case of rain, how about a make-up game for July 14 in Miami?