neymar Paris Saint-Germain said on Monday the forward required ankle surgery and is set to be sidelined for the rest of the season after being ruled out of action for three to four months.
The Brazilian, who injured his ankle against Lille in Ligue 1 on February 19, “has had several episodes of instability in his right ankle in recent years,” the club said, adding that its medical staff “underwent a ligament repair operation”. Avoidance is recommended.” Major risk of recurrence”.
Qatar-owned PSG said Neymar would go under the knife in Doha “in the next few days” and said it would be “three to four months before he can return to training with the team”.
It appears any chances of Neymar playing again this season are over, with the Ligue 1 season set to end on June 3 and the Champions League final if PSG were to travel to Istanbul a week later.
PSG, still awaiting a maiden Champions League title, will bid to overturn a 1-0 first leg deficit in the last 16 against Bayern Munich in Germany on Wednesday.
Neymar, who has scored 18 goals in all competitions for his club this season, was in fine form for the French champions ahead of the World Cup break.
But the 31-year-old has only netted three times in nine games since returning from Qatar, where he injured his ankle while playing for Brazil.
He came off with a sprain in his country’s 2–0 win over Serbia in their opening game and did not play again in the group stage.
The former Barcelona player returned in the knockout rounds, but Brazil lost on penalties to Croatia in the quarter-finals despite Neymar putting them ahead in extra time in that game.
Neymar’s fitness has regularly been a concern for PSG since signing from Barcelona in 2017 for a world record fee of 222 million euros ($264 million).
In his first season at PSG, a fractured metatarsal ruled him out of the second leg of the Champions League last-16 tie against Real Madrid, which they lost.
He did not play for his club again that season and faced a race against time to be fit to play for Brazil at that year’s World Cup in Russia.
The following year another metatarsal injury saw him miss the last-16 tie against Manchester United as they were again eliminated in the first knockout round.
Neymar has scored 118 goals in 173 games for PSG but has missed more than 100 games due to injury or suspension.
PSG are also without presnel kimpembe against Bayern on Wednesday, with the France centre-back suffering an Achilles injury to miss the rest of the season.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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