Twenty-four years. That is how long Brazil have waited to lift the World Cup trophy again. And right now, on the eve of their tournament opener, their most important player is sitting in a treatment room with ice on his calf, staring at the ceiling and wondering if fate is really this cruel.
Neymar — 34 years old, perhaps in the final chapter of a career that has always promised more than it delivered on the global stage — has been fighting a right calf problem since May 17. Brazil’s medical team says he could be sidelined for up to three weeks. His availability for the opening game against Morocco is in serious doubt.
This is not just a footnote. This is a catastrophe in the making.
Brazil arrived at this World Cup already depleted. Rodrygo — electric, dangerous, irreplaceable — is gone. A torn ACL in March ended his tournament before it began. Estêvão, the wonderkid who was supposed to be the next great Brazilian star, is also carrying a concern. The winger contingent that this team depends upon so heavily has been reduced to fragments.
It’s why they called up Neymar in the first place — a 34-year-old in the twilight of his career, brought back because nobody else could fill that void. And now even he might not be fit.
Raphinha will be asked to carry this attack. Gabriel Martinelli will need to find another gear. Brazil are not without talent — they never are — but the sense of a team held together with hope and prayers is growing harder to ignore.
“Win or bust,” one Brazilian journalist wrote this week. Twenty-four years of hurt will do that to a fanbase. The question is whether Brazil still have the players to end it.
Morocco await. The clock is ticking. And Neymar is still in that treatment room.
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