Image courtesy: brfootball|433/Twitter
The team’s star player Neymar has been ruled out of the remaining group stage matches due to the ankle injury he sustained during Thursday’s encounter, which was a thrilling 2-0 victory for Brazil in their FIFA World Cup 2022 opener against Serbia.
For Neymar, the competition is still not done, though, as he is anticipated to play in the knockout rounds. The Brazilian forward was fouled nine times during the game at the Lusail Iconic Stadium, which is the most fouls any player has received in this World Cup so far. In the 80th minute of the game, the forward was seen clutching his ankle in pain after a hard tackle from Nikola Milenkovic. He was replaced by Antony.
During the final ten minutes of the game, Neymar was seen receiving treatment with ice packs on the bench. After the victory, he limped back to the locker room. Later, he had testing, and on Friday, he was also treated in the hotel.
Neymar will now miss the games against Switzerland on November 28 and Cameroon on December 3, but he will be back in the lineup for the knockout matches, which start from December 3 onward. For Brazil, Neymar has yet to win a significant trophy. While he represented Brazil at the 2013 Confederations Cup and earned an Olympic gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, he is yet to make an impression on the biggest stage of them all. He is also two goals short of tying Pele’s Brazilian record.
