Neymar will not be on the field in Santos against Sao Paulo, this Sunday (21), in Vila Belmiro, for the Brazilian Championship. With another muscle problem, something recurring since his return to the club alvinegro, is out of the classic and, it seems, the next call of the Brazilian team.
The latest discomfort is in the straight femoral muscle of the right thigh. According to Praian association, the 33-year-old striker left Thursday (18) with pain and went the next day for tests that detected the injury. The degree of this injury and the estimated recovery time were not disclosed.
The player has been facing such situations since he was received with a party for the Santos fans in late January, as a great reinforcement. Absent from important matches, such as the semifinal duel of the Paulista Championship with Corinthians, has 21 appearances in the season, with six goals and three assists.
Your team’s numbers are even more worrying. After the fall against Arquirrival in the state and early elimination in the Brazilian Cup against CRB, the team – which last month took 6-0 of Vasco in São Paulo – has only 23 points in 22 games in the Brazilian Championship and fight against relegation.
None of this helps Neymar in his attempt to return to the national team. The athlete’s plan on his return to Brazilian football, as repeated by himself several times and Santos leaders, was to recover the joy and physical form in his old house, keeping an eye on the national selected. None of this has happened so far, and the time for the 2026 World Cup is running out.
The player suffered a serious injury to his left knee, a previous cruciate ligament rupture in October 2023. He returned a year later, while still defending Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal, but has since been facing muscle problems, frequent for those who return with ligament and surgery.
In Santos, the two main previous injuries were in the left thigh. With the break in the calendar for the Club World Cup dispute, Neymar has done a work of strengthening and balanced and was nine of his team’s ten matches since the stop. So now came the new setback, with injury to the other thigh.
The coach of the national team, the Italian Carlo Ancelotti, has said several times that he will only call athletes “in good physical condition”. These words, said in the last call, even caused Neymar’s irritation reaction: “I was out of technical option, it has nothing to do with physical condition.”
Ancelotti adopted conciliatory Tom in the rejoinder. “I believe it is true, because it is a technical decision, which is based on many things: what the player is doing, what the player did and also the problems he has had. When I speak of physical criteria, it is a criterion that the whole commission considers very important,” he replied.
More recently, in an interview with the French newspaper L’Equipe, the Italian treated Neymar as “the most talented Brazilian player”, but made it clear that talent is not enough. “A selection needs to gather the most talented players. It’s obvious, right? But a talented player also needs to be in physical form. He needs to be 100%, not 80%.”
It does not seem that the Santos striker will be 100% until the next national call, who will make friendly in Asia in October: against South Korea, on the 10th, in Seoul, and against Japan, on the 14th, in Tokyo. In November, there will be two more friendly, probably in Europe and probably against African teams.
Then, there will be only one call before the last, it is already defined by the World Cup group. This penultimate call will be for matches in March. The idea is that the duels will be with strong European teams, as the final part of the preparation. If Neymar really wants to be in the World Cup, he doesn’t lack much time to be 100%. The final call will be in May.
