Former Real Madrid manager Jorge Valdano has claimed that his fellow Argentine Lionel Messi will be able to continue playing at the highest level for many more years.

Messi, 29, has continued his sensational scoring form this season, already netting 15 times in 13 appearances for Barcelona - seven of which have been in the Champions League.

The forward has picked up a number of troublesome injuries over the last 12 months, however, and it has been claimed that Messi will struggle to repeat his heroics as the years tick on.

Valdano, though, believes that the Argentina international 'will retire when he wants to retire' as he no longer needs to put in the miles in order to be decisive in the final third.

"Messi's limit is psychological, not physical," Valdano told France Football. "He'll retire whenever he wants to retire. Even when he is walking, he is always decisive.

"The recent 4-0 Barcelona victory against Manchester City at the Camp Nou was the perfect example of the type of match we'll see of Messi in the future.

"While his teammates all ran 11 or 12 kilometres, Messi barely ran seven, and he didn't need to run anymore to score a hat-trick and assist Neymar for the fourth goal."

Messi has scored 468 goals in 544 appearances for Barcelona since making his first-team debut for the Catalan giants in 2004.