In the 88th minute of Brazil’s match with Colombia, Neymar received a devastating blow to his back. He was in a tremendous amount of pain and needed to get stretchered off the field. Immediately he was taken to a local hospital, where it was discovered his injury is a fractured vertebrae.
He will miss the remainder of the World Cup, however, he will not require surgery.
Rodrigo Lasmar told Brazil’s SportTV: “It’s not serious in the sense that it doesn’t need surgery, but he’ll need to immobilize it to recover.
“Unfortunately, he’s not going to be able to play,” said Lasmar, adding that he expected the recovery period to take at least a few weeks.
With Thiago Silva missing Brazil’s semi final clash with Germany due to a second yellow in consecutive matches, Brazil was already going into the next round short handed. Now that their poster boy, and arguably best player of their team, is out for the remainder of the tournament, Brazil faces an almost impossible task heading into Belo Horizante Tuesday evening against Germany.
Dante will be the likely replacement for Thiago Silva. Dante is a regular starter for Bayern Munich and knows how many players on Germany play since his club teammates Thomas Müller, Toni Kroos, Basten Shweinsteiger, Phillip Lahm, Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng and Mario Gotze all play together in Munich.
But who can replace Neymar? Is there anyone even relatively comparable to the young Brazilian?
Ramires hasn’t been productive. Willian has seen minimal playing time. Maybe push Oscar out wide?
We’ll see what old man Scolari does with his team on Tuesday against Germany as the host nation dreams of a World Cup victory in their home country.
