At least he ‘s in truth companion with the place now. once again, as has happened so much since he moved from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2017, Neymar will travel to Doha, Qatar, to rehab his left ankle injury at the Aspetar clinic. It is the sixth clock in the past four years that he has suffered an wound that requires indeed much specialist treatment and attention ( therefore going to Aspetar ) and will keep him out for a count of weeks. This clock time, the incident that did it was one of bad luck. During Sunday ‘s 3-1 gain at Saint-Etienne, defender Yvann Macon went for a tackle, missing both Neymar and the ball, but the Brazil fore stepped on Macon ‘s ankle and twisted his own in the march. The ankle ligament has been damaged, and he ‘ll be sidelined for up to eight weeks. – ESPN FC 100: Presenting the top male players and managers of 2021 Neymar ‘s injury issues are well-documented. The first two were unplayful as he suffered metatarsal fractures in his right metrical foot ; the foremost one in February 2018, barely six months after arriving in Paris, ended his season ( he missed 16 games in entire ), while the second one a year late, in January of 2019, saw him miss another 19 games, recovering to play a region in the final examination three weeks of the campaign. A year ago, Neymar injured his leave ankle, missing five weeks and five games for that one. He was out of military action for two months and nine matches when he hurt his groin in February 2021, and before that, he ‘d torn right ankle ligaments playing for Brazil, which kept him out for three months ( June-September 2019 ).

In entire, if you add these injuries along with all the assorted minor niggles, Neymar has missed 91 matches for PSG so far. It ‘s constantly been a talking steer, specially for a player who was rarely injured in the four years he spent at the Camp Nou, during which he only missed 29 games. So what ‘s happened ? For a start, he ‘s getting older. Neymar turns 30 in February and considering he started playing master football when he was 16, he ‘s already carrying 14 years of efforts, saturation, knocks, kicks and general pain. He has credibly played besides much already, his body now more delicate than always. The accumulation of injuries does n’t help. If we look again at Neymar ‘s litany of issues, they very much impact the same parts of his body : foot, metatarsal, ankle, groin, the same areas that never fully heal and more likely to get hurt again. This is of naturally a concern, and PSG are trying to find a way of preventing these injuries arsenic a lot as possible. They have to look after Neymar ‘s body a much as they can, and he needs to help them besides. All the inconspicuous work — things like convalescence, rest, nutrition — will be more crucial than ever nowadays for the No. 10. After all, he ‘s entering a critical character of his career.

Neymar’s injury on Sunday was a fluke, but it will still see the Brazil international sidelined until at least February. Marcio Machado/Getty Images In May, Neymar ultimately signed a newly condense until 2025 at PSG, with the choice of an supernumerary year. That ‘s a long time, and to make the most of these years to come, his fitness will be key. He is mindful of it ; he reportedly did n’t like the criticism over his excess weight in the summer. It took him a while to get back to peak fitness, and to be the best interpretation of himself on the pitch ampere well. just when he was hitting that form, the injury happened against Saint-Etienne. – Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)
– Don’t have ESPN? Get instant access Within Neymar ‘s cortege, there ‘s a find of badly luck when it comes to what the advancing is going through, so far PSG are not worried. They hope Neymar will be spinal column, in full meet and ready to go for the key games in the Champions League — the first leg of their last-16 game will be Feb. 15 or 16, the moment leg on Feb. 22 or 23 — and in Ligue 1 ( they visit Lille on Feb. 6 ). In the meanwhile, Mauricio Pochettino will have to do without him.

Could this be a welcome opportunity to try something unlike ? The PSG director could plainly replace Neymar with Angel Di Maria, but he could besides try and get more libra in his team and play a 3-5-2 now that Sergio Ramos is back, with Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi — the No. 3 and No. 1 forwards respectively in the ESPN ‘s FC 100 for 2021 — astir front. Or possibly, flush a 4-4-2, with a rhombus midfield and Messi behind Mbappe and Mauro Icardi, or a categoric 4-4-2 with Messi up front with the french star. There are many options for Pochettino and PSG, with Neymar immediately forced to watch from the stands and see how his team does without him. There ‘s no doubt Neymar will be missed ; unfortunately, his team is used to it .