Lionel Messi has returned to practice with Argentina after overcoming a mild cold.

The Argentine football federation says Messi "participated in a normal manner in all the scheduled exercises" on Friday, showing a picture of the forward on its website during practice in Pretoria. The training session was closed to media.

The Barcelona star skipped a training session Thursday because of what the team doctor described as "cold-like symptoms."

Team spokesman Andres Ventura said Messi had no problems on Friday.

The team was scheduled to travel to Cape Town later Friday, a day ahead of its quarterfinal clash with Germany at the World Cup.

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