Neymar left the pitch last night during Paris Saint-Germain’s 1-0 win over Caen in the French Cup after he was fouled multiple times early in the second half.
Clearly injured, there was concern over whether the Brazilian would be able to recover in time for PSG’s Champions League second-round tie with Barcelona next week.
L’Equipe had initially announced that Neymar was certain to miss the Tuesday game against Barca, with PSG later confirming (via CBS Sports’ Jonathan Johnson) that Neymar will be out for a period of four weeks with a left adductor injury.
This will come as a serious blow to PSG’s Champions League hopes as until now, they had considered themselves favourites in the upcoming tie with Barca given the off-pitch turmoil and injuries plaguing the Catalan club.
Given that Neymar is the joint top-scorer in the Champions League this season (six), he was expected to play a major role in PSG’s push to win the UCL trophy.
That four week period, coincidentally, ends on the same date (11 March 2021) as the second leg of the PSG-Barca UCL tie (and, quite randomly, Neymar’s sister’s birthday).
Neymar in recent weeks had been quite vocal about signing a new contract for PSG and urging his teammate Kylian Mbappe to commit his future to the Parisien club. The injury will see the 29-year-old on the shelf for a few weeks but it should not affect his value to the club.
And if PSG need him in that second leg, he will have the perfect opportunity to make history on the pitch against his former club.
