Suarez, the striker whose own biography includes three separate biting suspensions, is missing the biggest stretch of Inter Miami’s summer for a different piece of misconduct.
The Uruguayan is serving a six-match Leagues Cup ban imposed after the 2025 final in Seattle, where he approached the Sounders’ head of security in the post-match melee and spat in his face.
Six matches is the length of a club’s entire Leagues Cup campaign if it reaches the final. Suarez will not play a minute of the 2026 edition.
That leaves Messi walking out at Nu Stadium as the only member of Miami’s usual front line still standing.
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Head coach Guillermo Hoyos confirmed on the eve of the game that the captain is available, along with the rest of the fit squad.
Hoyos gives Messi the green light
“Everyone is available. Obviously (German) Berterame still isn’t. We now have more or less the recovery of all the players,” Hoyos told reporters on Tuesday.
Berterame is still recovering from a shoulder and nose injury picked up against CF Montreal, and Tadeo Allende has not played since knee surgery in May. That leaves Messi likely to line up alongside Rodrigo De Paul and 19-year-old Mateo Silvetti.
Seventeen days after MetLife
Messi’s fitness question mark has nothing to do with training and everything to do with what happened on 19 July in East Rutherford.
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Argentina, defending champions, lost the World Cup final 1-0 to Spain in extra time, Ferran Torres striking in the 106th minute at MetLife Stadium.
It was the third World Cup final of Messi’s career, and his second defeat in one.
He was substituted late in extra time to a long ovation from the Argentine section, and stood in the centre circle for the trophy presentation with his shirt untucked and his eyes red.
He was back in an Inter Miami shirt within a fortnight. On Saturday 1 August, Messi came off the bench in the 53rd minute of a 2-2 home draw with Columbus Crew, his first club action since the final.
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He had two good chances but failed to convert either, and Inter Miami were pegged back to a 2-2 draw by Brais Méndez’s late equaliser.
The Leagues Cup format
The Leagues Cup pits the 18 MLS clubs against the 18 Liga MX sides in a group-style Phase One, with only the top four teams from each league progressing to the quarter-finals.
That leaves little margin: three matches, and only the best runs go through.
San Luis, sitting 15th in the Liga MX Apertura table with two points from three matches, arrive as underdogs. Inter Miami are unbeaten in seven MLS matches and second in the Eastern Conference.
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Kick-off is at 7:30pm local time.
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