Barcelona's treatment of Lionel Messi is 'strange' according to Argentina's national coach Edgardo Bauza.

The Ballon d'Or holder suffered a recurrence of a groin injury during the 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid on Wednesday and has since been ruled out for three weeks.

The setback has ruled the Barca star out of Argentina's upcoming South American World Cup qualifiers against Peru and Paraguay.

And Bauza has accused his club side of failing to look after Messi properly.

“Barca have sent us messages to ask us to look after Messi, but they don't seem to take care of him much themselves,” he told Fox Sports.

“It seems really strange that they make him play every game with the problems that he has.”

Messi had suffered a similar problem during the last international break, and Bauza blames Barcelona for aggravating the problem by making him play through the pain barrier in recent weeks.

He added to ESPN Radio: “What we got was an official notice from Barcelona that Lionel has a rupture in his right adductor, out for three weeks.

“It seems odd to us because three weeks is not enough to recover from a ruptured adductor.

“For me, Messi will not be able to play in the knockout games. We hope it's not serious and that in three weeks he'll be playing again. We're already thinking about playing the games without him.”