{"id":4183,"date":"2026-05-28T16:11:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T16:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=4183"},"modified":"2026-05-28T16:11:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T16:11:31","slug":"brazil-star-neymar-unlikely-to-be-ready-for-world-cup-opener-with-calf-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=4183","title":{"rendered":"Brazil Star Neymar Unlikely To Be Ready For World Cup Opener With Calf Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Picking injury-prone Neymar in Brazil\u2019s World Cup squad seemed like a risk and so it proved just 10 days later on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The 34-year-old forward has a calf injury and will likely not be fit for Brazil\u2019s opening game against Morocco, team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>&#8220;The expectation is that he will be sidelined from two to three weeks,&#8221; Lasmar told reporters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Brazil plays Morocco on June 13 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, to start a group that also includes Haiti and Scotland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>&#8220;Neymar arrived [Wednesday] at the Granja Comary,&#8221; Lasmar said, referring to the team&#8217;s training base near Rio de Janeiro, &#8220;did all medical tests, and was diagnosed with a grade two calf injury.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Neymar was selected for his fourth World Cup in a 26-man squad by coach Carlo Ancelotti despite not playing for the national team since October 2023 when he tore the cruciate ligament in his left knee in a World Cup qualifying game against Uruguay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>He has played just a few games this season for Santos since returning from Saudi Arabia on a free transfer from Al-Hilal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>FIFA\u2019s World Cup rules allow Neymar to be replaced by a June 1 deadline for Ancelotti to submit his final squad, or up to one day before a team\u2019s first game at the tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14><i>Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Picking injury-prone Neymar in Brazil\u2019s World Cup squad seemed like a risk and so it proved just 10 days later on Thursday. The 34-year-old forward has a calf injury and will likely not be fit for Brazil\u2019s opening game against Morocco, team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar said. &#8220;The expectation is that he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}