Ancelotti explains why Neymar was absent from the first call-up; understand
Italian coach cites physical problems of several athletes and reveals conversation with Santos striker before the release of the list for duels against Ecuador and Paraguay: “We are counting on him”
Carlo Ancelotti’s first call-up as Brazil’s coach was marked by Neymar’s absence from the final list for the matches against Ecuador and Paraguay. But the Italian coach made it clear, when asked about the matter, that the fact that the star was not among the 25 names announced on Monday was due to a physical issue. He also revealed that he spoke to the Santos forward before the list was released.
– As I said, I tried to select players who are in good shape. Neymar had an injury recently. Everyone knows that he is a very important player and always will be. Currently, we have many players who suffer injuries and cannot be in the national team, like Neymar, the same is true of Rodrygo, Gabriel, Joelinton, Militão. What I want to say is that Brazil has many talented players.
In the specific case of Neymar, we are counting on him. Brazil is counting on him. He returned to Brazil to play, to prepare well for the World Cup. I spoke to him earlier this morning to explain this. He is in complete agreement. That is how we continue.”
— Carlo Ancelotti, coach of the Brazilian national team
Neymar has been struggling with physical problems in recent months, after recovering from a serious knee injury that kept him out of action for over a year while playing for Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia. In the process of returning to the pitch, he suffered three muscle injuries in six months , which hampered his search for match rhythm.
The star returned to Santos at the beginning of this year and was even called up to the Brazilian national team by Dorival Júnior, Ancelotti’s predecessor. However, he had to be cut from the duels against Argentina and Colombia precisely because of a new physical problem on the eve of the FIFA Date.
The number 10 was one of the names mentioned by Ancelotti in the preliminary list for the duels against Ecuador and Paraguay, but ended up not appearing in the list of 25 athletes released this Monday.
Neymar has played for around 60 minutes in Santos’ last two games, against CRB and Vitória. In total, he has played 11 matches since returning to the São Paulo club, starting in six of them.
