Neymar has missed Brazil's first training session of their 2026 World Cup camp, pulled out for imaging tests on his right calf — and suddenly the question isn't whether he'll start against Morocco on June 13. It's whether he'll be in New Jersey at all.
The Brazilian Football Confederation confirmed he was sent to a private clinic in Teresopolis for scans rather than joining the closed session at Granja Comary. Their statement offered nothing beyond that: no timeline, no prognosis, no reassurance. Just silence while everyone waits.
The timing couldn't be worse
Neymar's recall last week was the story of Brazil's World Cup build-up. He hadn't featured under Carlo Ancelotti in a full year of the Italian's tenure, hadn't played for the national team since 2023, and had spent the intervening period grinding through injuries and a underwhelming return to Santos. His call-up still generated genuine excitement — 79 goals in 128 caps, Brazil's all-time top scorer — but it came with conditions attached.
Ancelotti was blunt about it in May: no special treatment, no sentiment, no nostalgia. Fitness and form, full stop. At the time that read as a manager managing expectations. Now it's the framework that could end Neymar's World Cup before it begins.
Brazil face Panama at the Maracana on Sunday, then Egypt in Cleveland before opening Group C against Morocco on June 13. That's two friendlies to prove fitness, and Neymar is already missing the first training session of camp. The margins here are razor thin.
Ancelotti already short of options
The calf scare lands at a particularly complicated moment for the squad. Gabriel Magalhaes, Marquinhos, and Gabriel Martinelli are all unavailable for the Panama friendly — they're preparing for Saturday's Champions League final between Arsenal and PSG. So Ancelotti heads into his first competitive rehearsal already patchworked at the back and now potentially missing his most high-profile attacking name too.
For anyone pricing up Brazil's World Cup odds, Neymar's involvement — or absence — shifts things meaningfully. A fit Neymar in form is a different proposition to a squad managing him through the group stage on one good leg.
The CBF says no further information will be released until assessments are complete. Brazil have three more sessions at Granja Comary before Sunday. The clock is running.
