Messi's behaviour in HK was unusual: sports expert
The associate head of Baptist University's department of sport, physical education and health on Thursday said the behaviour of footballer Lionel Messi while in the SAR was "unusual".  Professor Patrick Lau made the comment a day after the Argentinian star took to the field in the 60th minute of Inter Miami's friendly in Tokyo, despite not playing at all during the team's match on Sunday in Hong Kong.  On an RTHK programme, Lau said Messi may have suffered from burnout. "It may be because of a burnout, which means that he already had enough and didn't want to play. Looking back on the whole event, there were some unusual times when he deliberately bypassed some officials when awarding awards, and refused to shake hands or accept the award," he said.  "If you look back at his performance in the World Cup over the past few years, he's been praised for his team spirit and taking care of the feelings of other players. He's not an arrogant player." On the same programme, lawmaker Shang Hailong said he felt he had been "scammed" after learning that Messi played in Japan but not in Hong Kong, questioning whether the organiser of the SAR match had been professional enough. Separately, an opinion piece published in the Global Times said the Messi saga was "extremely rare", alleging that "external forces deliberately wanted to embarrass Hong Kong through this incident". Messi said on Tuesday that he did not play in Hong Kong because he was suffering from discomfort in his adductor muscles.