Neymar will miss next year’s Copa America with his ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) likely to sideline him until August, Brazil’s national team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar has said.
Neymar, 31, was forced off during Brazil’s World Cup qualifier against Uruguay in October and underwent surgery last month after rupturing his ACL and meniscus in his left knee.
Lasmar carried out the surgery and he has now insisted that Neymar will not be rushed back for the tournament, which will be held in the United States from June 20 to July 14.
“There won’t be time, it’s too early, there’s no point skipping steps to recover sooner and taking unnecessary risks,” Lasmar told Brazilian radio station Radio 98 FM.
“We expect that he will be ready to return at the start of the 2024 season in Europe, which is in August. We need to be patient. Talking about a return before nine months is premature.
“It is very important to have the time it takes for the body to build that ligament. The expectation is that after this time, he will have recovered at a high level.”
Neymar is Brazil’s all-time leading scorer with 79 goals in 129 appearances and is widely viewed as the team’s most important player.
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Neymar joined Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal in August in a €90million ($96m) deal from Paris Saint-Germain, but the former Barcelona star has only featured in five games because he was struggling with muscle injuries.
Neymar has seen the last three seasons disrupted by injury. The forward was sidelined for three months during the 2021-22 campaign with an ankle injury, before another ankle injury ruled him out of two Brazil matches at the 2022 World Cup. He returned to action for PSG before sustaining ligament damage on the same ankle in February and subsequently undergoing surgery, forcing him to miss the final four months of the season.
Neymar missed the 2019 version of the Copa America with an ankle injury sustained on the eve of the tournament, which Brazil won as hosts.
The forward won the Confederations Cup title with Brazil in 2013 and the Olympics three years later, but he has yet to taste success at either the World Cup or Copa America with his nation.
Neymar suffered injury heartbreak at the 2014 World Cup as an injury sustained in the quarter-final win over Colombia forced him out of the nation’s 7-1 defeat to Germany in the last four stage.
Neymar scored a magnificent goal in Brazil’s World Cup last eight tie against Croatia in December last year but his side lost the penalty shootout while in 2021, Brazil were edged out by Argentina in the final of the Copa America.
Brazil have been drawn in Group D of next year’s Copa America alongside Colombia, Paraguay, and the winner of a play-off between Costa Rica and Honduras.
This is the second time the tournament will be hosted in the U.S., after its centenary edition in 2016, as six teams from Concacaf compete with ten South American nations.
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(Guillermo Legaria/Getty Images)
Source link : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5151236/2023/12/20/neymar-knee-injury-copa-america-brazil/
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Publish date : 2023-12-19 03:00:00
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