Neymar Sent Home From Brazil Duty With Lingering Ankle Injury

Brazil star Neymar has been sent home from international duty after medical checks revealed he was still carrying an ankle injury picked up in October.

The Paris Saint-Germain winger picked up the knock in the first half of the Champions League win over Istanbul Basaksehir last month, limping off after just 26 minutes.

Despite missing the last three games because of the injury, Brazil still opted to call him up to their international squad for the upcoming fixtures against Venezuela and Uruguay.

Neymar was injured against Istanbul Basaksehir playing for PSG in October / Pool/Getty Images

However, according to Globo Esporte Neymar underwent extensive medical examinations on Thursday night in Sao Paulo, with manager Tite already aware that he wouldn't be able to feature in Friday's game against Venezuela.

The hope was that he would be able to play against Uruguay next Tuesday, but following the checks it was determined he would remain unavailable and thus was sent back to Paris.

According to team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar, Neymar's condition has improved in recent days but not enough to play in any of the upcoming fixtures and it was agreed with PSG that the player would return to the club to continue rehabilitation.

Neymar featured against Peru back in October's internationals / Daniel Apuy/Getty Images

"The player performed on Monday and has since undergone intensive physical therapy work," the doctor said. "He showed good progress, but not enough to be available for the game against Uruguay. Today, when we arrived in São Paulo, we had already planned to perform ultrasound to monitor the response of his healing."

Lasmar continued: "We brought him to stay close, so that we could follow recovery, but we were committed to PSG so that they could follow the player's evolution and recovery step by step from a distance. This exam that we did really confirmed that there is an evolution, but that the player is not ready to start playing again."

Although Neymar remains injured, this is likely good news for PSG boss Thomas Tuchel, who had questioned both Neymar and Kylian Mbappe's inclusion in their respective international squads given their fitness.

Neymar has played in just 13 of Brazil's 24 games since the 2018 World Cup, meaning he has been unavailable for 45% of games, including last years Copa America.