Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian superstar Neymar will be sidelined for up to three months – perilously close to the eve of the World Cup – after undergoing surgery on his broken foot, his doctor said on Thursday.
The worse than previously announced prognosis came minutes after the Paris Saint-Germain striker, 26, arrived in Rio de Janeiro on an Air France flight from Paris for Saturday’s operation.
“The (recovery) period will be around two and a half to three months,” national team surgeon Rodrigo Lasmar, who flew with Neymar, said.
The injury has not only ruled the world’s most expensive player out of PSG’s make-or-break Champions League clash with Real Madrid on March 6, but more worryingly for the football-mad public in Brazil, also threatens the much-fancied national side’s build-up to the World Cup, starting in Russia on June 14.
Lasmar, who will lead the surgery at a hospital in Belo Horizonte, underlined that there is no quick fix for the striker.
“It’s not a simple fracture, but a fracture in an important bone in the middle of the foot,” Lasmar said.
Dressed in a black hoodie, a black baseball cap and wearing sunglasses, Neymar left the plane in a wheelchair. He smiled and took selfies with other passengers, before leaving on a private jet to an undisclosed destination.
The initial assessment did not appear quite as serious on Sunday, when Neymar was reported to have suffered a hairline fracture of the fifth metatarsal, as well as a twisted ankle late in PSG’s 3-0 win over Marseille in Ligue 1.
On Tuesday, the Brazilian’s father Neymar Senior had claimed the player would be out for “at least six weeks”.
PSG coach Unai Emery had said earlier that there remained a “small chance” of getting him back in time to face Real.
Lasmar’s assessment painted a graver picture both in terms of the fracture and expectations for recovery.
