Neymar's Return to Training: World Cup Hopes

Neymar is back in Brazil training, but not yet back in Brazil’s World Cup team.

The country’s record goalscorer, on 79 goals, only rejoined full training with the squad in the United States this week after a right calf injury that has stalked his season. At 34, with a body that has taken more hits than most, every sprint and every twist is now measured against the calendar of a long tournament.

For now, Carlo Ancelotti is refusing to gamble.

The forward sat out Brazil’s opening 1-1 draw with Morocco and has again been left out of the matchday squad for the second group game against Haiti on Friday. The message from the bench is clear: Brazil want Neymar in this World Cup, but they want him fit when it matters most.

That hasn’t stopped the debate, or the jokes, back home.

“Neymar? He is not even playing!” Brazil’s president Lula fired back when a young boy mentioned the striker’s name. The 80-year-old, speaking at a hospital ceremony in Belo Horizonte, could not resist another jab, quipping that Neymar was “the first player to be called up who is working remotely.”

It was a line that landed because there is a grain of truth in it. Neymar has barely played this year. Diagnosed in late May with a calf injury, he has featured in only half of Santos’ matches in 2026, another season interrupted by fitness problems layered on top of a long medical history.

Lula has been in mischievous mood since the Morocco draw, even teasing that he was thinking of signing Lionel Messi to play for Brazil. The joke underlined a more serious point: a country that once built everything around Neymar is now learning to live, and sometimes laugh, without him.

Inside the camp, the tone is different. Ancelotti and his staff, according to Brazilian media, are wary of rushing back the man who has carried the No. 10 shirt through the last three World Cup campaigns. The risk is obvious: bring him in too soon, and Brazil could lose him for the rest of the tournament.

Neymar has not played for his country since October 2023. That long absence, combined with his stop-start club season, made his very inclusion in this World Cup squad a talking point. Some expected a clean break, a move toward a new generation. Instead, Brazil opted for one more dance with their all-time leading scorer.

On Wednesday, there was finally a glimpse of that familiar figure in full training, back among his teammates, boots in the grass, the ball at his feet. It was only a session, not a comeback, but it shifted the mood. For the players, and for the coaching staff, it offered a reminder of what he can still bring when his body allows it.

The group stage gives Brazil a little room to maneuver. After Haiti, their final match comes against Scotland in Miami on June 24. That date now looms as a possible target, a realistic window for Neymar to move from “working remotely” to actually stepping back onto the World Cup stage.

If his calf holds, and if Ancelotti’s caution pays off, Brazil may yet get the version of Neymar they have been waiting for — not the poster on the treatment table, but the match-winner under the lights.