Brazil’s 2-0
friendly win over Asian champions Qatar in Brasilia on Wednesday came at a
heavy cost after they lost striker Neymar for this month’s Copa America because
of an ankle ligament injury.
Neymar
limped off in the 17th minute after he appeared to twist his right ankle and
the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) later confirmed he would miss the
tournament.
“Neymar was evaluated and underwent scans that
confirmed a ligament rupture in the ankle,” CBF said in a statement.
“Due to the seriousness of the injury, Neymar
will not recover in time to participate in Copa America in Brazil.”
The CBF said they would meet on Thursday to
pick a replacement for Neymar in the squad for the tournament, which kicks off
on June 14.
The injury capped a horrible few days for
Paris St-Germain striker, who was stripped of the Brazil captaincy last month
and was last weekend accused of rape in a case that has dominated the headlines
in his homeland.
Brazil were already leading 1-0 courtesy of
Richarlison’s 16th minute header when Neymar departed and Gabriel Jesus added
the second eight minutes later from close range.
The five-times world champions were rarely
troubled by a limited Qatar side, who missed a VAR-assisted penalty in injury
time.
“We won and the feeling is that we won well,”
said man of the match Philippe Coutinho. “We pressured them and we did what we
wanted to do.”
Once again, though, all attention was focused
on Neymar, the world’s most expensive player and a polarizing figure in the
football world.
Neymar has suffered several serious injuries
dating back to 2014, when a brutal knee in the back from Colombian Juan Camilo
Zuniga kept him out of Brazil’s World Cup semi-final defeat by Germany.
He injured a metatarsal in his right foot that
sidelined him in the months leading up to the 2018 World Cup and an injury to
the same foot in January forced him to miss the business end of this season
with Paris St-Germain.
The country’s president Jair Bolsonaro, a
football fan who had attended the game, was pictured with a smiling Neymar as
the player received treatment at the hospital after the match on Wednesday.
The president’s good wishes for a speedy
recovery were to no avail, though, and Brazil will face Bolivia in their Copa
America opener on June 14 in Sao Paulo without their best player.