{"id":700894,"date":"2026-05-28T22:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700894\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T22:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:17:09","slug":"football-2026-brazil-superstar-neymar-in-doubt-for-world-cup-after-fresh-injury-setback-video-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700894\/","title":{"rendered":"Football 2026: Brazil superstar Neymar in doubt for World Cup after fresh injury setback, video, news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brazil forward Neymar is a doubt for the start of the World Cup after injuring his calf, requiring two to three weeks of treatment, the national team\u2019s doctor Rodrigo Lasmar said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old Santos star will miss Brazil\u2019s two pre-World Cup friendlies against Panama and Egypt, but may also be out of their tournament opener against Morocco on June 13.<\/p>\n<p>Get all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com.au\/newsletter-sign-up?utm_source=FootballArticle&amp;utm_medium=TextLink&amp;utm_campaign=signup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Sign up now &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779017096_680_poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>An MRI scan \u201cidentified a grade two muscle injury&#8230; our expectation is that he will be available in two to three weeks,\u201d Lasmar said at Brazil\u2019s pre-tournament training centre just outside Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n<p>Neymar joined his international teammates at the training centre on Wednesday but sat out the first session.<\/p>\n<p>He has missed Santos\u2019s last few matches due to what his club coach Cuca had called \u201ca slight injury\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>His inclusion in Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti\u2019s 26-man squad for the World Cup was something of a surprise as Neymar had not been picked for the national team in almost three years.<\/p>\n<p>Brazil&#8217;s Neymar. Photo by EVARISTO SA \/ AFPSource: AFP<\/p>\n<p>A mixture of injuries and poor form had left him outside the national team set-up, with Ancelotti citing concerns over his fitness after leaving him out of Brazil\u2019s squad for March friendlies against France and Croatia.<\/p>\n<p>However, Neymar is Brazil\u2019s all-time leading goalscorer with 79 goals in 128 appearances for the Selecao. This will be his fourth World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>His last appearance for Brazil was in 2023 during a World Cup qualifier against Uruguay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brazil forward Neymar is a doubt for the start of the World Cup after injuring his calf, requiring&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-700894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}