Lionel Messi skips Inter Miami road game at Orlando City. Here is the Starting XI

Lionel Messi is not on the Inter Miami game roster for Wednesday night’s road game against Orlando City due to a knee injury, ending a streak of six games in which the Argentine captain played 90-plus minutes.

Although assistant coach Javi Morales said it was not a serious injury, and Messi participated in light training the past few days, he rested and did not travel for the state rivalry game. Inter Miami has three games in a week, the next one is coming up at home Saturday against D.C. United, and Copa America starts next month, so it makes sense that 37-year-old Messi would try to avoid fatigue and further injury.

Messi was replaced by Matias Rojas in the starting lineup, which also included Drake Callender, Tomas Aviles, Nico Freire, Franco Negri, Sergio Busquets, Julian Gressel, Benjamin Cremaschi, Marcelo Weigandt, Luis Suarez and Robert Taylor.

Suarez leads MLS with 11 goals in 12 games and Messi is in second place in the Golden Boot race with 10 goals.

“Of course, it’s different when you have three games in a week than when you have seven days and there is more time for recovery,” Morales said.

Left back Jordi Alba, who had missed four games with a hamstring injury, returned to the active roster but was on the bench for the start of the game.

Miami leads MLS with 27 points on eight wins, two losses and three ties. The men in pink have won five games in a row, but have won only two of the 12 games without Messi.

Orlando City is 11^th in the Eastern Conference with three wins, five losses and three ties. Orlando has only one win in its first six home games this season.