World Cup winner Lionel Messi is set to return to Paris Saint-Germain next week, according to club coach Christophe Galtier.

Messi, who is 35 years old, was the most important player on the Argentina team that won the World Cup in Qatar nine days ago. He scored twice in the final against France, which ended in a victory on penalties.

Then, he and his teammates went back to Argentina to celebrate their third World Cup win.

“Leo had a very big World Cup with his victory,” said Galtier on the eve of PSG’s meeting with Strasbourg as Ligue 1 kicks off again on Wednesday after the World Cup break.

“He had to return to Argentina for the celebrations and we decided that he was going to be off until January 1.

“He will come and join us either on the second or third (January) to pick up the season with us.

“He will have had between 13 and 14 days of recovery.”

Galtier confirmed that Messi will miss their upcoming French Cup match at Chateauroux but Kylian Mbappe and Neymar is available for selection.

“Kylian Mbappe and Neymar “will be available for the match tomorrow (Wednesday)”, said Galtier.

“We made sure to manage on a case-by-case basis,” said Galtier. “After talking with him, Kylian wanted to join us fairly quickly.”