Messi copes with heavy heart by doing what he shared with his father - his game

How did Lionel Messi play with a heavy heart?

And why?

Was it simply doing what he knows best in his toughest moment – doing what his father and him shared most?

Messi entered Wednesday night’s Inter Miami game at halftime after returning from the funeral of his father, Jorge, 68, in Argentina.

“Dad, I still can’t believe you are gone,’’ Messi wrote on Instagram earlier Wednesday. “It is difficult to imagine that I won’t see you again; that we won’t speak anymore. I know you were suffering and it’s for the best, but you left too soon. We still had so much left to enjoy together.”

Have you lost your parents? If so, you’ve been where he is. And, if you haven’t lost them, give them a call or a hug simply because you can. Because one day you won’t be able to, which is every day Messi faces now.

So, he played Wednesday, bring his grief public, maybe helping him heal just a little by playing the game they loved. Sports can do that. Brett Favre played a Monday night game on the day after his father, Irv, died of a heart attack while driving.

Favre completed nine straight passes to start the game, including two touchdowns. He was 22 for 30 for 399 yards, four touchdowns and a 154.9 quarterback rating – the highest he achieved in a game.

“Divine intervention,’’ he said.

“You bring this script to a studio and they throw it out,” Al Michaels said.

That wasn’t Messi on Wednesday. The script was simply the fact he played in a manner that might have been balm for his soul. Only he knows. Maybe it cut another way, deeper, changing some perspective on his life.

Jimmy Johnson stood before his mother’s coffin and felt that way. His knees buckled, his breath stopped and he stumbled toward his wife, Rhonda, and two sons and father and said something aloud he never had.

“I love you,’’ he said.

He was done coaching football then even though he continued coaching that Miami Dolphins season. He coached a game after his mother died before coming to the funeral. He was the coach, right? Big. Strong. A leader.

No one is bigger than Messi in sports. No one really knows what his private life is like other than – good for him – it’s private. He doesn’t talk much publicly. That’s why his bearing his soul after his father’s death was notably.

“You asked me to play in this last World Cup so many times and just before it started was when you were at your worst,” Messi said on Instagram. “It was the first time you were not at a tournament, but mum told me you would get better and you would be able to travel. I told you we would reach the final so you could. When each game finished, I waited for and then missed your messages. That was when I realized how bad the situation was. But I did not stop thinking about going as far as possible, to give you time and for you to be able to see a game if we reached the final.

“But you could not be there. I wanted to win it to bring it home and show you [the World Cup] again. I couldn’t, my legs had nothing left to give. I tried, but I couldn’t. You thought we had lost the final on penalties. We couldn’t speak about anything that had happened. I couldn’t enjoy anything. We were not champions in the end, but you don’t know how much we enjoyed every game. You were right once again: I had to be there and play at the World Cup.”

After Wednesday’s Inter Miami game, teammates said what they could, what you would about your friend in that situation.

“It shows how much he cares,’’ Yannick Bright said. “When I saw he was here, all I was thinking about was to give my 150 percent for him.”

“I had never seen that in my life,’’ Casemiro said. “All we can do is thank him for being here. We know he is a very important player, and the commitment he has with us and the club can only be applauded. We have to keeping helping him and his family.”

Life goes on.

The question is how Messi goes with his heavy heart.