Paris Saint-Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino is worried about the possibility of Neymar spending a long time on the sidelines due to the injuries he sustained in their comeback win against Saint-Etienne at the weekend.
Neymar was stretchered out of the game in the 80th minute after a crunching tackle by Yvann Macon, and had to leave Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on crutches.
Pochettino has expressed hopes that Neymar has not sustained a serious injury, though the PSG manager conceded that the images he has seen of the incident do not look good.
According to football data collection site Transfermarkt, this is Neymar’s fourth injury of the season, and he looks to be out for 42 days pending the results of the tests being carried out.
Pochettino told journalists at a press conference: “There is nothing more to say for the moment, it is the pain he felt in the leg with his ankle that turned. We will have the exams tomorrow and we will see.”
In an earlier interview with Amazon Prime Sport, Pochettino said: “We will have to see this tomorrow but from the images, I hope that it’s not a big deal and that he will be back with the squad quickly. But the action is not good.”
Neymar injury history at PSG
Neymar is no stranger to these situations as he’s one of the most injured players in the world in the past few seasons. He has learnt to take these setbacks on the chin and come back stronger every time.
This is his third ankle injury at PSG; the first happening in June 2019 to keep him out of PSG’s pre-season preparations for two months, and the other in December 2020 which kept him out for a month.
The 29-year-old posted an update for fans to his official Instagram account which read: “Let’s recover, unfortunately these setbacks are part of an athlete’s life. Now that’s what you have, lift your head and let’s go. I’ll come back better and stronger.”
This season, Neymar has already missed 57 days (9 matches) due to injury, with a further nine matches to be missed if he spends the predicted 42 days out on the sidelines due to this latest injury.
In Neymar’s four-and-a-half seasons at PSG, has missed 524 days (90 matches), amounting to a year and five months of football.
PSG can, however, count on the quality of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria if this injury happens to be a long term one for the Brazilian.
