Neymar to undergo surgery on ankle on Friday

Brazil legend and PSG forward Neymar will have surgery on his right ankle this Friday morning in Doha, according to information obtained by L'Equipe. The rehabilitation process is expected to leave him out of the training ground for the next three to four months, ruling him out for the remainder of the season and into the summer.

Announced last Monday by Paris Saint-Germain, Neymar's surgery has been confirmed to take place this Friday, March 10th, in Doha. Neymar suffered his last injury (sprained right ankle) in the victory of PSG against Lille (4-3).

While PSG knew about Neymar's weak ankle from the moment they signed him back in 2017, both parties had decided to delay the inevitable for years betting everything on luck. That, though, led to Neymar missing more than 750 days of training/play with PSG through the past six seasons.

Now, Neymar and PSG have finally resigned and accepted the operation as a must-do procedure, which will keep the player out for the remainder of an already lost season and midway through the summer pre-season while he rehabilitates from the surgery.

Neymar will go under the knife once and for all in Doha on Friday, PSG expect him back in July

Neymar tried to come back in time for the second-leg game of the Champions League last-16 against Bayern Munich, but the pain was too much for him to endure, ultimately leading to this conclusion.

At the start of the week, the medical staff working at PSG acknowledged in a note that "Neymar has sustained a number of instances of instability in his right ankle in recent years."

The club recommended the Brazilian forward undergo surgery in order to attempt a "ligament repair operation" that should "avoid a major risk of recurrence" of his ankle woes in the future. The statement said that "all the experts consulted have confirmed this" as a "necessity" if Neymar wants to keep playing at the top level in future seasons.

Neymar turned 31 years old last February and although still relatively young for a footballer, the truth is that it's been years and years sustaining injuries in the second half of the football schedule.

With Chelsea interested in the player and having entered conversations for a potential acquisition of the player this summer, and considering PSG's improved form since his injury a bit over three weeks ago (barring the elimination from the Champions League), Paris will do well moving on from Neymar as soon as they can and while there is still interest in his services, which get more and more damaged by the year at this point.

The Brazilian finishes the 2022-23 season on another disappointing (and sad) note, having appeared in just 20 Ligue 1 games and 6 Champions League matches scoring 15 goals and assisting 13 more between both competitions.

After playing at least 36 games in each of the four seasons he spent in Barcelona, Neymar has never reached more than 31 games in a single season while at Paris Saint-Germain accounting for all competitions.

This is the second year in a row he will not even reach 30 games played between all tournaments disputed by PSG, and the fourth time he fails at that in six seasons playing in the French capital.