Neymar Returns to Grass Training for Brazil
Neymar stepped out of the gym and back onto the grass on Tuesday, and for Brazil that simple act felt like a jolt of electricity.
Boots on. Calf strapped. Moving along the touchline in Morristown, New Jersey, the 34-year-old finally traded weight machines for the edge of the pitch, his first session on the grass since the squad arrived in the United States. For a country clinging to the hope that its talisman can still shape this World Cup, the sight mattered.
The Brazil Football Confederation called it “another step in his recovery process,” and for once that familiar phrase carried substance. Video released by the CBF showed the former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain star opening up his stride in light running drills, shadowed closely by a member of Carlo Ancelotti’s coaching staff, every movement monitored, every grimace — or lack of one — noted.
This is no routine knock. Neymar has been out for a month with a Grade II right calf injury, sustained on May 17 while playing for Santos. The diagnosis demands caution. Push too hard, too soon, and the tournament ends before it truly begins for him. The medical team knows it, and so does he.
Brazil still named him in the final roster, a gamble rooted as much in faith as in science. He arrived in camp under a cloud of doubt, his fitness the dominant subplot around a team that expects to go deep. ESPN reported that he underwent fresh medical examinations on Monday to assess the healing of the muscle, though the CBF has not yet released those results.
Inside Brazil, the message from the medical staff has been clear: think long term. The plan, as reported by Brazilian media, is built around having Neymar fully ready for the knockout rounds, not the group-stage grind. That approach likely rules him out of the remaining Group C fixtures against Haiti and Scotland, a calculated sacrifice if it buys them a fit No. 10 when the margins tighten.
For now, he watches. Neymar sat on the bench, out of kit, during Brazil’s flat 1-1 draw with Morocco on Saturday, a spectator in a game that once would have revolved around him. Ancelotti, though, has no intention of treating him as a bystander.
“Neymar is working very hard to recover as soon as possible,” the coach said before that 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 last point matters. This World Cup is not just another tournament for Neymar; it is a confrontation with his own body. He has not played for the senior national team since October 17, 2023, when he tore his ACL and meniscus against Uruguay in a qualifier. That night marked the start of a brutal stretch in which the Santos forward has spent close to 700 days sidelined, bouncing between surgeries, rehab rooms and false dawns.
The calf problem threatened to be another cruel twist. Instead, Tuesday’s light work on the grass hinted at a different storyline: one of timing, patience and a late arrival on the biggest stage.
He is still expected to be a spectator when Brazil face Haiti on Friday. But the image that will linger from this week is not of Neymar in a tracksuit on the bench. It is of him in boots again, running the touchline, chasing the clock and one more shot at a World Cup that refuses to let him go.
