La Pulga Atomica of Barcelona, Lionel Messi and his teammates were put through their paces at England's St George's Park training base on Monday for their pre-season friendly.

Barcelona began preparations for their opening pre-season friendly against Celtic on Saturday, and the La Liga champions will spend six days at St George's Park before flying to Dublin to take on Brendan Rodgers' side at the Aviva Stadium in the International Champions Cup, reports skysports.com

Messi had not been expected to make the trip to England after being afforded an extended period of rest by Barcelona following his exertions at this summer's Copa America, where he helped Argentina reach the final.

Leo and Luis Suarez were among the household names in Luis Enrique's 25-man squad, which included 12 players from Barcelona B and their U19 team.

The Argentine football genius showing off his daring new haircut was clearly in good spirits after what has been a frustrating and difficult summer for Lionel Messi.