Neymar's Recovery Progress: A Hopeful Step for Brazil
Neymar took a small step on Tuesday. For Brazil, it felt enormous.
After a month locked in the gym with a stubborn right calf injury, the 34-year-old finally traded machines for grass at Brazil’s base in Morristown, New Jersey. Boots back on, moving along the touchline, not yet with the ball, not yet with his teammates — but visible, active, present. For a country clinging to the idea that its icon can still shape this World Cup, the images mattered.
The Brazil Football Confederation (CBF) called it “another step in his recovery process,” and for once that well-worn phrase rang true.
Footage released by the CBF showed the former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain star completing his first running drills since the injury and working closely with a member of Carlo Ancelotti’s coaching staff, every stride monitored, every movement measured.
This is not a routine knock. Neymar arrived in camp already under a cloud, having suffered a Grade II calf injury playing for Santos on May 17. The diagnosis demanded caution, the kind that frustrates fans but saves careers. Brazil named him in the final tournament roster anyway, a calculated gamble that his influence later in the competition would outweigh his early absence.
Inside the camp, the plan is clear. Brazilian media report that the medical team are working to a long-term schedule, targeting the knockout rounds as the realistic moment to unleash him. That timeline almost certainly rules him out of the remaining Group C games against Haiti and Scotland. On Monday, according to ESPN, he underwent fresh medical tests to assess how well the muscle has healed, though the CBF has not yet made those results public.
For now, he watches. He did so on Saturday, sat on the bench in street clothes as Brazil laboured to a disappointing 1-1 draw with Morocco. No kit, no warm-up, just a spectator with a closer view than most. His rehabilitation continues while his teammates search for rhythm without him.
Ancelotti, though, has never wavered in his messaging.
“Neymar is working very hard to recover as soon as possible,” the Brazil head coach said before the Morocco match. “Our expectation is that he will recover and rejoin the group next week. When we included him in the roster, we added him for his technical abilities, which are indisputable. But we also want him for his experience and the example he sets for the young players on the team.”
That dual role — star and standard-bearer — has taken on extra weight after a brutal stretch in his career. Neymar has not played for the senior national team since October 17, 2023, the night he tore his ACL and meniscus in a World Cup qualifier against Uruguay. That single moment triggered a long, draining cycle of operations, rehab and setbacks. Across various injuries and recovery periods, the Santos forward has spent roughly 700 days on the sidelines.
This World Cup, then, is more than a tournament for him. It is a test of how much his body still has to give, and how much Brazil still wants to build around him.
The medical staff will not rush. The calf must be right, or the risk of another collapse grows. That is why, despite the excitement of seeing him back on the grass, expectations remain tempered. It is anticipated he will again be a spectator when Brazil face Haiti on Friday, a high-profile fan in a bib or tracksuit while others carry the immediate burden.
Yet the image lingers: Neymar running, however gently, on the edge of the pitch in New Jersey. For Brazil, that thin strip of grass could be the start of something far bigger — or the last, fragile chance to see their No. 10 command a World Cup stage one more time.
