A blow to Neymar’s ankle in the Selecao’s opening game with Serbia led to the star striker being ruled out of the rest of the group stage, which finished with Brazil losing 1-0 to Cameroon on Friday night.
Brazil had already won their opening two games, meaning it was very, very unlikely they would not secure 1st place in the group.
And even though they lost to Cameroon with a much-changed XI, Brazil finished top of their group and now meet South Korea in the last-16 next week.
Following Friday’s loss, the Brazil boss has provided a number of injury updates, including one on Neymar:
“Regarding Neymar and Alex Sandro, we think we have time on our hands and there is a possibility,” Lasmar told reporters.
“Let’s wait what their transition will be - they have still not started to train with the ball and it’s something they will do tomorrow. It will be important to see how they respond to this new style, so depending on that, we will make a call.”
Lasmar added that Brazil full-back Danilo has responded “very positively” to treatment having also sat out the last two games.
While there are “high expectations” he will make the South Korea match on Monday night in Doha, Alex Telles and Gabriel Jesus are both injury doubts: “Alex Telles came off complaining of pain in his right knee after trauma,” he added. “He has been assessed in the changing room and tomorrow will do a magnetic resonance image to be able to assess his condition.
“Gabriel Jesus after the game complained of pain in his right knee and after clinical assessment, we have asked for an imaging exam tomorrow.”
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