Neymar ‘cried for two days’ after new foot injury

Paris Saint-Germain’s Brazilian forward Neymar leaves the pitch following an injury during the French Cup round of 32 football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Strasbourg (RCS) at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris on January 23, 2019. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP)

Neymar “cried for two days” after injuring his right foot for a second time in January, he told Brazilian television according to an excerpt of an interview broadcast on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old Paris Saint-Germain star recognized that damaging the same metatarsal he hurt in February 2018, necessitating an operation, was serious.

“It’s more complicated. The first time I hurt myself I said, ‘I’ll have an operation, it has to be fixed as quickly as possible’. I wasn’t sad,” he told Globo TV.

“This time, I took it harder. I cried for two days at home.”

The injury sustained in a French Cup win over Strasbourg on January 23 has sidelined the Brazilian forward for 10 weeks. PSG hope he will be healed enough to get back on the pitch in time for a potential Champions League quarter-final in April.

This time, the club’s medical staff have decided on conservative treatment of the fracture rather than another operation.

Last year, Neymar was laid up for three months after surgery, returning just in time to play in the World Cup in less than stellar form.

His full interview with Globo TV is to be broadcast on March 3.