Brazil may have sealed their place in the World Cup semi-finals, but they will have to play the rest of the tournament without their star striker Neymar who was carried off on a stretcher towards the end of their 2-1 victory over Colombia.
Team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar has confirmed that Neymar suffered a fractured vertebra during the match with Colombia.
He told Brazil’s SportTV: “It’s not serious in the sense that it doesn’t need surgery, but he’ll need to immobilize it to recover.
“Unfortunately, he’s not going to be able to play,” said Lasmar, adding that he expected the recovery period to take at least a few weeks.
The Brazil football confederation (CBF) confirmed in a statement that Neymar is likely to be absent for around a month, ruling the striker out of Tuesday’s semi-final against Germany and the final, should Brazil get there, on July 13.
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The statement read: “Neymar is out of the World Cup. The player suffered a fracture of the third vertebra and will not be able to recover in time to compete in the remaining two games of the World Cup – the recovery time predicted by the Brazilian team’s medical department is four weeks.”
Neymar has at times seemed to carry this Brazil side single-handedly into the knockout stages of this tournament, notably slotting the final penalty to ensure they won a shootout with Chile in the previous round.
However the joy at beating Colombia on Friday evening will have been tempered by the news that their talisman is out of the tournament after being taken straight to hospital following their quarter-final clash.