Lionel Messi was not on board of his private jet that made an emergency landing in Belgium, confirmed by HLN journalist.

Kristof Terreur, a famous journalist who works for Belgian media HLN, has confirmed on his Twitter: “Lionel Messi was not on board of the private jet – the one he rents – that made an emergency landing at Brussels Airport.”

According to earlier reports, a £12million private jet used by Messi has been forced to make an emergency landing at Brussels airport due to a fault with the plane.

The Barcelona star’s favoured plane was making its way to Tenerife in the Canary Islands when it suffered from issues with its landing gear.

The aircraft grounded at Zaventem Airport in the Belgian capital for the first time at 9.18 am.

Less than an hour-and-a-half later, it departed again, only to turn around and return to Brussels.

It took-off at 10.35 am local time and headed south-west out of Brussels but just 43 minutes and 132 miles later at 11.18 am it touched down again.

Information from Flight Aware shows the aircraft flew from San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina to Guararapes airport in Recife, Brazil, a 5h 51m flight.