The Barcelona and Argentina superstar sustained a tear in a ligament in his left knee during the clash with Las Palmas but the national team medic is unworried by the setback

Argentina team doctor Donato Villani is confident injured Barcelona star Lionel Messi will return to action in less than two months.

Messi is set to miss the next seven-to-eight weeks after suffering a tear in the internal collateral ligament of his left knee in Barcelona's 2-1 win over Las Palmas on Saturday.

The 28-year-old's injury is a blow for both Barca and Argentina, but Villani believes the national team captain will return quicker than expected.

"For years I've known Leo and I have no doubt that he will be ready in the shortest possible time of the injury, perhaps before that period of six-to-eight weeks," Villani told Ole.

"He gets mad when he cannot play, when he's not with the ball. Because of that I know that he's going to recover quickly and in the best way because he's very professional.

"The desire to play again and the will to heal can influence."

03:16:00

The central midfielder said he knew the Argentine was crocked in their defeat of Las Palmas on Saturday as he never complains

Sergio Busquets was left ruing Barcelona's "bad luck" after Lionel Messi sustained a knee injury against Las Palmas.

Messi was withdrawn in the 10th minute with the club later revealing he has a tear in his internal collateral ligament.

The Argentine superstar is set to be sidelined for up to two months, which represents a significant blow to a Barca side who are second in the Liga table behind Villarreal.

Busquets told Canal Plus: "You know that if Messi complains, then something's wrong.

"He's the best player in the world, our best player. We're having some bad luck with injuries, and not being able to register new players makes things worse."

03:09:00

Pro-independence parties in Spain's Catalonia region have won an absolute majority in regional elections, near complete results show.

With more than 90% of the votes counted, the main separatist alliance and a smaller party won 72 seats in the 135-seat regional parliament.

They said earlier a majority would allow them to declare independence from Spain unilaterally within 18 months.

The central government in Madrid has pledged to block such moves in court.

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With nearly 94% of the votes counted, the "Junts per Si" ("Together for Yes") won 62 seats, while the far-left separatist CUP party is expected to secure 10 mandates.

"We have won," Catalan regional President Artus Mas told his cheering supporters late on Sunday.

After a celebration rally, the pro-independence camp's leaders told the BBC's Tom Burridge that they would now proceed towards the creation of an independent Catalan state.

But the road ahead is controversial and anything but clear, our correspondent adds.

The pro-independence parties said ahead of the vote that they considered it a de facto referendum on independence from Spain.

They argue that the Spanish government has consistently refused to allow a legally recognised referendum to take place, ignoring an unofficial vote backing independence in November 2014.

Opinion polls suggest a majority of Catalans favour a referendum on independence but are evenly divided over whether they want to secede.

15:28:00

Robert Lewandowski was breaking records again Saturday as he reached a tally of 100 German top flight goals quicker than any foreign player.

The Pole notched the fastest ever hat-trick in Bundesliga history when scoring all five of Bayern Munich's goals in Wednesday's 5-1 drubbing of Wolfsburg.

And two more Lewandowski goals in Bayern's comfortable 3-0 win away to Mainz Saturday ensured he achieved a century of Bundesliga goals in just 168 appearances.

Lewandowski arrived in Munich on a free transfer from Borussia Dortmund in 2014 after scoring 74 goals in three years at the Westfalonstadion.

Saturday's strikes take him to 27 goals for Bayern. They also helped extend the Bavarian's 100% start to the season.

Pep Guardiola's side have now won seven league matches on the bounce and are five points clear of closest rivals Dortmund who play newly promoted Darmstadt on Sunday.

Elsewhere in Germany Saturday, Bayer Leverkusen picked up a valuable 3-1 win away to Werder Bremen to move into fifth position in the Bundesliga table.

Fourth placed Wolfsburg continued to struggle after Wednesday's defeat away to Bayern with a 1-1 draw at home with Hannover.

Hoffenheim won 3-1 away to Augsburg while Borussia Monchengladbach triumphed by the same score line at Stuttgart.

15:19:00