{"id":35905,"date":"2026-05-31T16:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T14:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=35905"},"modified":"2026-05-31T16:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T14:57:18","slug":"brazils-ancelotti-confident-forward-neymar-will-recover-for-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/brazils-ancelotti-confident-forward-neymar-will-recover-for-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil\u2019s Ancelotti confident forward Neymar will recover for World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Brazil\u2019s Neymar is recovering well from a calf injury and could even be available for their opening World \u200bCup match in June, Coach Carlo Ancelotti said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Neymar was recalled \u200cto the squad this month despite not featuring in Ancelotti\u2019s plans during the Italian\u2019s year in charge of Brazil.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Santos forward, who is \u200bBrazil\u2019s all-time leading scorer with 79 goals in 128 \u200binternational appearances, was then ruled out of warm-up games against \u2060Panama and Egypt by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) due \u200bto the calf injury on Thursday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cBefore the squad announcement, we received \u200ba report from Santos saying the player had a minor issue, some swelling. We left Santos to deal with that situation until the \u200b27th,\u201d Ancelotti told reporters on Saturday ahead of Brazil\u2019s meeting \u200bwith Panama.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cNeymar was called up because, from the coaching staff\u2019s point of \u200cview, \u2060he had to be called up. After the 27th, the CBF took over Neymar\u2019s situation, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done. We\u2019re managing Neymar\u2019s recovery. We believe he\u2019ll recover as quickly \u200bas possible.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cHe\u2019s working \u200bwell, and he\u2019s \u2060in good spirits. We believe he can be ready for the first World Cup match. \u200bIf he\u2019s not ready for the first match, \u200bhe\u2019ll \u2060be ready for the second. So we have absolutely no intention of replacing anyone.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Brazil, looking to win a record-extending sixth World \u2060Cup \u200btitle, will face Morocco, Haiti and \u200bScotland in Group C of the June 11 to July 19 tournament in \u200bNorth America.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21559,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-35905","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Brazil is looking to win a record-extending sixth World \u2060Cup \u200btitle.","published_date":"","news_description":"Brazil is looking to win a record-extending sixth World \u2060Cup \u200btitle.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35907,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35905\/revisions\/35907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}