NEYMAR BATTLED BACK the tears yesterday s he urged his Brazil team-mates to win the World Cup without him after he suffered a fractured vertebrae suffered in the quarter-final win over Colombia.
“It is a difficult moment for me and it is hard to know what to say. My dream is not over. It was interrupted,” the emotional superstar said in a video released by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) as he left the team camp.
“Life moves on. I am sure my team-mates will do everything possible so that we can achieve our dream of being champions.
“It was also my dream to play in a World Cup final. It will not be this time, but I am sure we will overcome this and we will all be able to celebrate being champions.”
The Brazil squad applauded the 22-year-old Barcelona striker at an emotional farewell at their Teresopolis camp before he was taken to Rio de Janeiro by helicopter.
Brazilian team doctor Jose Luiz Runco called for World Cup referees to do more to protect players as he confirmed details of Neymar’s fractured third lumbar vertebrae, a bone in his lower back. The injury was suffered in a challenge by Colombia defender Juan Zuniga in Friday’s game which Brazil won 2-1.
“In games involving Brazil we have seen some things happen that are not in keeping with what we should see on a football field,” he said, recalling the crunching challenges during last week’s game against Chile that already left Neymar battered and bruised.
“Referees have tried to avoid giving out cards but FIFA is likely to take some action now. They must have experts looking into what happened.”
FIFA confirmed earlier that they were looking into the incident after Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo did not even book Zuniga for the challenge.
Runco said that the fracture will need three to six weeks to heal, and that the player will rest at home with his family in Guaruja, near Sao Paulo.
The player departed Brazil’s base in Terespolis on Saturday afternoon, waving to the cameras after he was loaded on a stretcher onto a helicopter on a pitch at the Granja Comary training ground.
With his father alongside him, Neymar waved to the many cameras before taking off for Rio de Janeiro, from where he is expected to return to his family home.
Without their star player, Brazil must take on Germany in Tuesday’s semi-final in Belo Horizonte, although Runco suggested that Neymar may yet attend the match.
“It all depends on whether he feels any pain, but it shouldn’t get in the way of his recovery,” he said.
