Barcelona's Lionel Messi may miss last three games of the season

Lionel Messi could miss the rest of Barcelona's season after being ruled out of for up to three weeks with a recurrence of a hamstring injury.

The 25-year-old Argentina forward had medical tests on Monday after being taken off in the new La Liga champions' 2-1 weekend win at Atletico Madrid.

He has struggled to regain full fitness since picking up the problem in April.

Barca are out of the Champions League and Spanish Cup, with the last of their three remaining league games on 1 June.

"He was bothered in the same area. He felt a strange sensation," said Barca boss Tito Vilanova of Messi's injury.

Barca's final game of the season is at home to Malaga, with their other league matches against Valladolid and the Catalan derby with Espanyol.

They had already secured the La Liga title ahead of kick-off against Atletico courtesy of Real Madrid's failure to beat Espanyol on Saturday.

The new champions trailed 1-0 on Sunday when Messi was forced off in the 67th minute, leaving his side to play the rest of the match with 10 men as all three substitutes had already been used.

His team-mates fought their way back to win in his absence through Alexis Sanchez's strike and Gabi's own goal.

After coming off the bench in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Paris St-Germain on 10 April, Messi was left on the bench for the second leg of the semi-final against Bayern Munich with Vilanova deciding it was too risky to play him in pursuit of a 4-0 deficit.

Messi has scored 46 league goals this season - just four short of matching last season's record-breaking tally.