Barcelona take on Ferencvaros in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Messi hasn’t made the matchday squad.
As the Catalans are already through to the CL last-16 round, Koeman decided to give the 33-year-old a rare rest.

“It is not usual for him to rest, but with the calendar this season, there were two games in which Leo can rest, in Kyiv and tomorrow, because we are already classified. And Saturday’s game in the league is very important,” Ronald Koeman told the pre-Ferencvaros presser about Lionel Messi’s omission from the matchday squad.

“He always wants to play, but whenever I make a decision I talk about it with the players. There will be no more rest options because we will play every three days and we have the Super Cup.

“Leo is always Leo, he has a lot of importance in the sense of our attack. At the beginning of the season it cost him a little more, he is not going to score 30 goals per season, but he is still a very important player for our team.”

Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Philippe Coutinho have also been excluded from Barca’s 20-man list for Wednesday’s Champions League clash with the Hungarian champions.