Neymar injures ankle during Brazil’s World Cup-opening victory over Serbia
Neymar sat crying on the bench and later left the stadium limping with a swollen right ankle after Brazil’s 2-0 victory over Serbia at the World Cup on Thursday.
Brazil team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar said Neymar sprained his ankle.
“We put ice on it while he was on the bench and then in physiotherapy,” Lasmar said. “There is no test scheduled for now but we will schedule it if needed. He will be under observation. We will know more tomorrow.”
Brazil coach Tite said he was “confident that Neymar will continue playing at the World Cup,” but Lasmar said it was too early to comment on the extent of the injury.
Neymar, who was fouled nine times in Thursday’s match, got injured in the second half and was substituted in the 79th minute. Tite said he stayed on the field for 11 minutes before asking to be replaced.
The 30-year-old Neymar has yet to win a major title with the national team. He helped Brazil win the 2013 Confederations Cup and its first Olympic gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
With 75 goals for the national team, he is two shy of Pelé’s scoring record.
■ RONALDO RECORD: Cristiano Ronaldo became the first male player to score at five World Cups with a goal for Portugal in a 3-2 win over Ghana on Thursday.
The 37-year-old striker converted a penalty in the 65th minute to give Portugal a 1-0 lead.
He has now scored in every World Cup since his first in 2006, when he converted a penalty against Iran in the group stage.
Ronaldo scored one goal at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, another at the 2014 tournament in Brazil, and four in Russia in 2018.
Ronaldo extended his men’s record tally of international goals to 118.
Brazil forward Marta has scored in five Women’s World Cups.
■ IRANIAN PLAYER ARREST: Iran arrested a prominent former member of its national soccer team on Thursday over his criticism of the government as authorities grapple with nationwide protests that have cast a shadow over its competition at the World Cup.
The semiofficial Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported that Voria Ghafouri was arrested for “insulting the national soccer team and propagandizing against the government.”
Ghafouri, who was not chosen to go to the World Cup, has been an outspoken critic of Iranian authorities throughout his career. He objected to a longstanding ban on women spectators at men’s soccer matches as well as Iran’s confrontational foreign policy, which has led to crippling Western sanctions.
More recently, he expressed sympathy for the family of a 22-year-old woman whose death while in the custody of Iran’s morality police ignited the latest protests. In recent days he also called for an end to a violent crackdown on protests in Iran’s western Kurdistan region.
The reports of Ghafouri’s arrest came ahead of today’s World Cup match between Iran and Wales. At Iran’s opening match, a 6-2 loss to England, the members of the Iranian national team declined to sing along to their national anthem and some fans expressed support for the protests.