Sao Paulo
\nBrazil\u2019s record scorer Neymar said he had to endure \u201cnonsense\u201d criticism as he worked his way back from serious injuries and is satisfied he has done all he can to prove he is fully fit and deserves a place in Carlo Ancelotti\u2019s World Cup squad.
\nThe Santos forward has not played for his country since 2023 due to injuries and a knee operation that sidelined him for a year. Brazil coach Ancelotti has said Neymar has to be fully fit and playing well to be in contention for a World Cup spot.
\n\u201cPhysically, I feel great. I\u2019ve been improving with every game,\u201d Neymar told reporters after Santos\u2019 3-0 defeat by Coritiba on Sunday.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve done my absolute best \u2013 it wasn\u2019t easy. I\u2019ll admit it wasn\u2019t easy.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been years of hard work, and also of a lot of nonsense being said about my condition and what I was doing. It\u2019s really sad the way people talk about it.
\n\u201cI worked hard, quietly, at home, suffering because of what people were saying, and it all worked out.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve made it to where I wanted to be in one piece. I\u2019m happy with my performance, with everything I\u2019ve done so far\u2026 Whatever happens, Ancelotti will certainly call up the 26 best players for this battle.\u201d
\nDuring Sunday\u2019s match, Neymar was involved in a furious protest after being wrongly substituted. The mix-up could not have come at a worse time for the 34-year-old, with Ancelotti set to announce his World Cup squad on Monday.
\nBrazil, looking to win a record-extending sixth World Cup title, will face Morocco, Haiti and Scotland in Group C of the June 11 to July 19 tournament in North America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sao Paulo Brazil\u2019s record scorer Neymar said he had to endure \u201cnonsense\u201d criticism as he worked his way back from serious injuries and is satisfied he has done all he can to prove he is fully fit and deserves a place in Carlo Ancelotti\u2019s World Cup squad. The Santos forward has not played for his …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":97935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97963,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97953\/revisions\/97963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}