The Argentine star made an immediate mark upon his return to his club side, scoring the game-winning goal.
Lionel Messi scored his second goal of the season less than two minutes after he entered the game as a second-half substitute, and Inter Miami held on for a 2-1 victory over the visiting Philadelphia Union.
The 37-year-old star had missed Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers in South America during the recent international window after picking up an adductor strain in Miami’s most recent Major League Soccer (MLS) game, a 2-1 win at Atlanta on March 16.
Finnish winger Robert Taylor had put Miami ahead in the 23rd minute of Saturday’s game, slotting home a low pass from Benjamin Cremaschi after Jordi Alba had broken down the left flank.
Messi was brought on by coach Javier Mascherano in the 55th minute and he was immediately on target. Messi’s former Barcelona teammate Luis Suarez picked him out on the right and he jinked to make space and fired a low, right-foot effort into the far corner.
Philadelphia pulled a goal back in the 80th minute when Quinn Sullivan whipped in a cross from the right and Hungarian midfielder Daniel Gazdag brought the ball down before firing home a crisp shot.
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Unbeaten Miami sits on top of the Eastern Conference with four wins from their opening five games of the season.
Inter face a busy spell with a trip to Los Angeles to play LAFC in a CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal, first leg on Wednesday. They have a home game against Toronto the following Sunday with the return against LAFC three days later.
Mascherano said it had been a cautious move to start with Messi on the bench.
“We didn’t want to risk him from the start because we thought he might be at risk playing the whole game, but we did want him to get some minutes,” said the Argentine coach.
“The plan is that he can recover and travel to Los Angeles. He played today because he was fine. Maybe he wasn’t ready for the full 90 minutes but it was good for him to play 45 minutes. If nothing unusual happens the plan is for him to travel,” he added.