PSG striker Neymar will undergo surgery “in the coming days” on his right ankle in Doha and will be absent from the field for “three to four months,” the Parisian club announced Monday. He will thus miss practically the rest of the season. The Brazilian, who was injured on February 19 against Lille in a Ligue 1 match, “has had several episodes of instability in the right ankle in recent years,” so that “the medical staff of Paris SG recommended a ligament repair operation in order to avoid a greater risk of relapse,” said the club.
This new mishap of the Brazilian star compromises the remainder of the season with his club. Neymar already suffered a problem in the same joint in the first match of the World Cup in Qatar against Serbia and could only return to play with his national team in the round of 16. This long unavailability of Neymar brings bad memories for Paris SG, which was already deprived of its Brazilian star for extended periods since he signed from Barcelona in 2017.
Thus, he injured his foot before the Champions League round of 16 second leg against Real Madrid in 2018. In 2019, ‘Ney’ missed the round of 16 of Europe’s top competition against Manchester United, while in 2021 he was injured again before the clash against his former club Barcelona, again in the round of 16, although this time the injury was to his adductor. “To say that ‘Ney’s’ absence is an anodyne thing, no. He is among the best passers in Ligue 1 and it is a detrimental absence for us,” said coach Christophe Galtier last Friday, who will be without the Brazilian for the second leg of the round of 16 in Munich against Bayern next Wednesday, where the Parisians will try to lift the 1-0 deficit from the first leg.
Affected by the disappointment of the World Cup (elimination of Brazil in the quarterfinals against Croatia on penalties), the Brazilian star had not shown in recent matches the great performance exhibited in the first part of the season, but remained one of the main offensive arguments of Christophe Galtier’s Paris SG with his 13 goals and 11 assists in Ligue 1 this season.