injuries have kept Neymar out of decisive Champions League and World Cup games for almost ten years

Skin-deep emotions, top-notch matches and worldwide acclaim. Big games are the preferred stage for elite soccer athletes — it’s no different for Neymar. But serious injuries in the last ten years undermine what should have been the competitive peak of the 31-year-old, the biggest name in Brazilian football in that period.

Out of the final stretch of PSG’s season, the striker underwent surgery in Doha, Qatar, on Friday. Yesterday, he posted a photo returning home with his foot immobilized. Injured in the match against Lille, on the last day of the 19th, when he sprained his right ankle, Neymar missed the team in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Bayern Munich, in which the French club needed to reverse a 1-0 draw at home — took 2 to 0 and ended up eliminated.

It was the fourth time that Neymar missed the Champions League round of 16 due to injury, the third due to problems in the same region: his right foot, in which he suffered ankle sprains that led to ligament problems, a fissure and a fracture in the fifth metatarsal. The same problem cut him out of the 2019 Copa América, hampered his preparation for the 2018 World Cup and took him out of two games in 2022. When he was not living with a local injury, in 2014, he was the victim of a violent tackle by Colombian Zúñiga, on Wednesdays.

Check out the injuries that took Neymar out of important games

1. 16/01/2014 – Right ankle tendon injury / 10 away games / Team with Messi starting to form. First major ankle injury
2. 07/04/2014 – Fracture in the third vertebra of the spine / 2 games away from the national team / Absent from the semifinal and third place match of the 2014 World Cup
3. 02/27/2018 – Fissure in the fifth right metatarsal / 16 games away / Absent in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Real Madrid (PSG was eliminated) and in the selection’s friendlies against Germany and Russia, preparation for the 2018 World Cup
4. 01/23/2019 – Fracture of the fifth right metatarsal / 18 away games / Absent in the Champions League round of 16 games against Manchester United (PSG was eliminated)
5. 06/06/2019 – Ligament tear in right ankle / 5 away games / Withdrawn from 2019 Copa América
6. 10/14/2019 – Grade 2 left thigh injury / 6 away games / Missing against Brugge in the Champions League group stage
7. 02/10/2021 – Left thigh adductor injury / 9 away games / Absent in Champions League round of 16 games against Barcelona (PSG qualified)
8. 11/29/2021 – Ligament injury in left ankle / 13 away games
9. 11/24/2022 – Ligament injury in right ankle / 2 away games / Absent against Switzerland and Cameroon in the 2022 World Cup group stage
10. 11/19/2023 – Ligament injury in the right ankle / currently injured / Absent in the second leg of the Champions League against Bayern Munich (PSG was eliminated)

Ankle injuries have accompanied him since he arrived in Europe – he suffered his first significant injury while still in Barcelona. At PSG, they intensified. The French newspaper L’Équipe even published that the club knew about the need for surgery on the spot when they hired him, in 2017, in the biggest transfer in history, but would have chosen not to do it. At PSG alone, he missed 119 games, between injuries and recovery – about 38% of the duels since his debut, in August of that year.

The physical problems also make the Brazilian team start a new cycle without its main reference. Before the World Cup in Qatar, the number 10 and top scorer of the national team alongside Pelé (with 77 goals, according to FIFA) even suggested that that could be his last. But, in the call-up of Ramon Menezes, last Friday, Neymar’s absence was justified by clinical reasons.

Focus on the mental — as far as possible

After the new injury, Neymar went to the nets to lament: “Again and again”. Even frustrated, the number 10 is usually brief in comments about physical problems, focusing on recovery. But the situation inevitably affects the mentality of one of the most talented players of this generation, always projected to the top of European football.

In early 2022, he spoke to streamer Gaules and former striker Ronaldo Fenômeno about his psychology in the second half of his career:

— I joke with my friends, I say that at about 32 (years old) it’s already good. But honestly, I don’t know. I’ll play until I’m mentally tired, as long as I’m in good shape in my head and body. In body, I can last a few more years, but it’s the head that needs to be well always. I didn’t draw that. I have a contract with Paris until I’m 34, so until then I’m playing.

In the same broadcast, the player defended himself against accusations that he uses recovery periods to celebrate in Brazil, such as on a trip he was in the country during Carnival:

“I went once. He was at the end of treatment, he was already able to walk, dance, run. I went the day before going to Paris. They started picking on me. But I have to take it easy, you can’t please everyone, unfortunately.