Neymar faces race to be fit for crunch Real Madrid match
PARIS: Neymar still has a “small chance” of playing against Real Madrid in the Champions League and there are no plans for an operation on a cracked bone in his foot, Paris Saint-Germain coach Unai Emery said on Tuesday.
“For Neymar there has been no decision to have an operation,” said Emery, denying an earlier report in the Brazilian press that the world’s most expensive player would go under the knife to fix the injury.
“Neymar is the first to want to play every match, he’s very focussed on Real. I think there’s a small chance that he’ll be ready for the match,” said Emery.
PSG trail 3-1 from the last 16 first leg in Madrid two weeks ago and the loss of Neymar would be a huge blow to their chances of overturning that deficit at the Parc des Princes on March 6 and reaching the Champions League quarter-finals.
Neymar suffered a cracked metatarsal in his foot and a twisted ankle in an innocuous looking incident against Marseille on Sunday night.
And while Spaniard Emery said there is a possibility he will recover by next week, he was more pessimistic than he had been on Sunday night.
“Today, after analyzing Neymar, it looks less likely than it did on Sunday that he’ll be ready for this match,” said Emery.
However, he was clear in his dismissal of a report published by Brazilian media outlet Globo Esporte on Tuesday morning that claimed a decision had already been reached for Neymar to undergo an operation, and that he would be out until May.
“Last night (Monday) the club issued an official statement: It said how the player was medically,” added Emery.
“Things (like operations) aren’t decided like that,” he added, clicking his fingers. “You need discussions with the doctor, the player, his entourage. To make such an important decision you need tranquility and a bit of patience. Right now, I don’t think you need anything else. There’s a lot of information from outside, but the truth is what I told you, which is what the doctor told me.”
According to medical experts, the world’s most expensive footballer is almost certain to miss the Real match due to his cracked metatarsal.
“For sure this fracture calls into question his participation in eight days’ time,” said JeanMarcel Ferrat, a former doctor with the France national football team. “When there is a crack, it’s possible it would become a fracture if he played. It would be very risky as it’s a fragile bone in the foot which is difficult to protect. (Playing) could compromise the rest of his season.”
According to Pascal Maille, head of the medical department at Clairefontaine, the French national football training center, Neymar could have played if all he had suffered was a twisted ankle.
“Playing in eight days’ time with a twisted ankle, we’ve all done it, you can play with strapping,” he told AFP.
“But a sprain associated with a cracked bone is difficult. It’s difficult to get an injection (pain relief) into a bone and there’s a risk during the match of making it worse.”
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