Barcelona star Lionel Messi’s brother Matias Messi is being investigated after prosecutor orders his arrest for illegally carrying a gun.

Matias was involved in a boat accident when he crashed in the Parana river and a weapon was found inside the blood-stained boat. The proscecutor Jose Luis Caterina has confirmed that Messi’s brother is being investigated for carrying firearm ‘in a suspicious context’.

Media reports suggested that Matias could well be facing more than eight years in prison if he is convicted.

However Matias Messi’s attorney has said that his client denies owning the gun. The 35-year-old is recovering from a fractured jaw and other injuries at a hospital in Argentina's Santa Fe province, ESPN reported.

Messi’s family has issued a statement regarding the incident and it was reported in Clarin newspaper.

"Considering the false reports published in some media in the last few hours, the Messi Cuccitini family wishes to clarify that Matias Messi Cuccitini had an accident on Thursday in Fighiera, south of Rosario, when the motorboat in which he was in, with a Mercury 115 motor, hit a sandbank.

"He hit the windshield and suffered fractures in his jaw and his palate, as well as multiple cuts on his face. After being transferred to a hospital, Matias is under observation and awaiting a maxilla and jaw operation, as well as a reconstruction of his lip. Fortunately, any neurological damage has been discarded."

The statement also denied that Matias Messi was carrying a firearm and suggested that it was false information.

The statement read: "The family denies any existence of a firearm on the boat, it's completely false all the information regarding this."