Neymar’s foot operation declared a success

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil: Brazil and Paris Saint-Germain superstar Neymar underwent successful surgery on his broken foot Saturday, officials said, but it will be six weeks before anyone knows when the planet’s most expensive footballer will play again.

The one hour and 15 minute operation at the Mater Dei hospital in Belo Horizonte “took place with great success, without any problem,” said Brazilian national team surgeon Rodrigo Lasmar, who led the procedure.

Only a short time later, Neymar, 26, was watching live coverage from his hospital room of PSG’s Ligue 1 game against Troyes, said Gerard Saillant, the doctor representing PSG in Belo Horizonte.

Neymar should be discharged from the hospital early Sunday, Lasmar said.But PSG said that Neymar will not be able to return to training for at least six weeks. This followed an earlier statement from Lasmar that the star player would be out of action for at least two and a half months, maybe three.

Neymar will definitely miss PSG’s make-or-break Champions League last 16 second leg against Real Madrid next Tuesday.But if Lasmar’s prognosis of a nearly three-month wait is true, then Brazil will be scrambling even to get him ready for the World Cup in Russia starting in June.

Neymar broke his fifth metatarsal — the bone leading to his small toe — during a 3-0 drubbing of Marseille on February 25. The striker — whose transfer from Barcelona cost PSG a record 222 million euros ($264 million) last August — has scored 28 goals in 30 appearances in all competitions for the club.

Amid reports of tension between PSG and Brazil’s footballing authorities over Neymar’s medical treatment, PSG insisted that it would take charge of his recuperation.“The post-operation rehabilitation will begin immediately under the control of the club’s physiotherapist,” PSG said in a statement on their website.

“An assessment will be conducted in six weeks in order to determine the possible date of his return to training.”Earlier, Paris newspaper L’Equipe reported that PSG believe Lasmar lied about Neymar’s condition.

The report said that Neymar was initially found to have suffered a minor fracture and that PSG were shocked to hear Lasmar say on Thursday that it was a serious break requiring a longer than expected recuperation.

Following the surgery, however, doctors stressed that there was no friction between PSG and Brazil’s federation, the CBF.“Contrary to what might have been written or said..., decisions already taken and those to come have had the complete agreement of Neymar of course, and of his family, all the staff at PSG, the medical staff, the organization and management of PSG, and the representatives of the CBF,” Saillant said. “There is absolutely no split, despite what was written.”