Neymar had surgery on Thursday in his home country of Brazil to fix damage to his anterior cruciate ligament and knee that he got in a national team game last month.
“The operation went well. “We’re very happy with the outcome,” said Rodrigo Lasmar, the doctor on the Brazilian team who did the surgery.
“He had a reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament and the two meniscus injuries have been repaired.”
The doctor also said that Neymar would likely stay at Mater Dei hospital in the city of Belo Horizonte in the southeast of the country for another 24 to 48 hours while he heals.
Neymar had Lasmar operate on him for a broken foot in 2018.
The 31-year-old was carried off in tears during Brazil’s 2-0 loss to Uruguay in a World Cup qualifying match on October 17. He had collided with Nicolas de la Cruz, a player for Uruguay.
The star scorer tore his left anterior cruciate ligament, which is one of the worst knee injuries in football.
The injury will probably keep him out for a few months, which means he won’t be able to play in Brazil’s 2026 World Cup qualifiers this month against Colombia and their biggest rivals, Argentina.
That’s the latest injury Neymar has had. In March, he had surgery for an ankle problem that kept him out for six months.
He signed with Paris Saint-Germain for a world-record 222 million euros ($236 million) in 2017, but he had a lot of fitness problems during his six years there.
It was said that he signed with Al Hilal for $95 million in August 2023.
Even though he has had a lot of injuries, Neymar made history in September when he scored 79 goals, passing the great Pele as Brazil’s all-time top scorer.