Argentina defender Ramiro Funes Mori says he would start Lionel Messi in the Copa America opener against Chile even if the Barcelona star "could not run or was on one leg."
Messi appeared in court in Barcelona on Thursday during his trial for tax fraud before flying to California, where the Argentina squad are preparing to face Chile in Santa Clara on Tuesday.
However, the Argentina captain is a doubt for that first group game after having picked up a rib injury in a friendly against Honduras in their last warm-up friendly.
Even so, Everton centre-back Funes Mori told a news conference: "If I was the coach I would put in Messi even if he could not run or was on one leg.
"He is such an important player and you need to know how to manage him. He is the best in the world, and I would always pick him. With Lionel things are different. We know how important he is on the pitch -- he can dribble past three or four players, break their marking. We all know how he is."
Funes Mori said that Argentina had shown before that they could manage without Messi, though, when they won World Cup 2018 qualifiers against Paraguay and Colombia last autumn when the forward was sidelined with a knee injury.
"We also knew how to play without him in Paraguay and in Barranquilla," he said. "We must be ready to play with him or without him, but it's much better if he is with us."
Argentina's participation in this summer's Copa America had been thrown into doubt recently when a move by the Buenos Aires government to delay presidential elections at the Argentine FA (AFA) led to threats that they could pull out.
Current AFA president Luis Segura subsequently said there was little prospect the team could withdraw, though, and Funes Mori said the players had not been distracted by the debate.
"When it was said that we could abandon the tournament, we kept thinking about playing it," he said. "We stay on the margin of what happens in the AFA as that is nothing to do with us. We came here to win the tournament."