ankles, metatarsus… The endless list of Neymar’s injuries
PSG star striker Neymar has missed more than 100 injury matches for his club since arriving in the summer of 2017.
Endless day. As Paris Saint-Germain announced on MondayNeymar (31) is going to have surgery on his right ankle and will miss “three to four monthsof competition, i.e. the remainder of the 2022-23 season. This right foot, the Brazilian can adore it, because he owes him part of his career, and he can curse it, because it is often the reason for his incessant trips to the infirmary. A look back at Neymar’s biggest injuries since joining PSG in the 2017 summer transfer window.
February 2018: ankle and fifth metatarsus, 16 matches missed
Neymar’s first season in the red and blue jersey. On February 25, 2018, at the end of the match against Marseille (3-0), the Brazilian injures himself on an innocuous support. Verdict: fracture of the fifth metatarsus of the right foot. “I also broke an ankle ligament.», will reveal Neymar a year later. Curtain for the PSG striker who misses the last 16 games of the season.
January 2019: fifth metatarsal relapse, 18 missed matches
16th final of the Coupe de France at the Parc des Princes, January 23, 2019. Against Strasbourg, Neymar is a player. By dint of suffering the tackles of the Alsatians, the Brazilian sees his right foot take a strange support. A very bad support: right ankle sprain and new fifth metatarsal fracture. He misses 18 matches, including the knockout stages of the Champions League where PSG is eliminated by Manchester United (0-2, 1-3), and does not return until the end of April.
June 2019: right ankle relapse, no Copa America
On June 6, 2019, Brazil receives Qatar for a friendly match before the Copa America. After a bad tackle received at the start of the match, Neymar receives treatment. He plunges his face into his hands: new sprain and new rupture of the ligaments in the right ankle. Brazil will win the Copa America without him. He will only miss the first 5 matches of the following season with PSG, after a recovery that lasted all summer.
Neymar after his injury during Brazil-Qatar in June 2019. Zuma / Panorama
December 2020: around the left ankle, 5 missed matches
On December 13, 2020, Paris loses at home against Lyon (0-1). But above all, after a year and a half without a big boo, Neymar is again injured in the ankle, the left this time. It’s a sprain. The Brazilian misses a month of competition. Not as bad as previous injuries.
February 2021: the adductor whistles, 9 matches missed
This time it’s muscle. Against Caen on February 10, 2021, in the 32nd final of the Coupe de France, Neymar suffered a left adductor injury. He is forfeited for the knockout stages of the Champions League against his former club, FC Barcelona. PSG pass quietly (1-4, 1-1). Neymar returns at the end of March and plays the rest of the season.
November 2021: left ankle relapses, 12 matches missed
Rebelote. On a tackle from behind by Yvann Maçon, Neymar saw his left ankle twist against Saint-Étienne, November 28, 2021. A sprain that will leave him on the sidelines for more than two months. He returned just in time for the round of 16 of C1 against Real Madrid, was decisive in the first leg but did not avoid sinking on the return (1-0, 3-1).
AT SEE ALSO – Neymar’s injury against Saint-Etienne in November 2021
February 2023: right ankle again, season over
February 19, 2023. In a duel with a Lille resident, Neymar’s right ankle spins. The pictures are not pretty. Neither does the diagnosis. Two weeks later, PSG announces its operation “ligament repair, in order to avoid a major risk of recurrence“, specifies the club. To see Neymar again in the PSG jersey in an official match, we must now wait until August 2023.
In total, Neymar has missed 46% of PSG matches
If you have the impression that Neymar is there every other game, you are not wrong. In his first five seasons in France (2017-2022), PSG played 267 matches and Neymar missed 123, or 46%. Blame it on the big injuries mentioned elsewhere, on many small sores, sometimes muscular, and various suspensions. Before his umpteenth relapse against Lille, and taking this match into account, Neymar had played 29 of PSG’s 35 games this season.
