Neymar recalls 2014 injury: I nearly lost ability to walk

The Brazil international suffered fractured vertebrae at the 2014 World Cup, but the consequences nearly curtailed his entire career

Neymar has recalled the brutal memory of his injury at the 2014 World Cup, revealing that he could not move his legs after his clash with Juan Zuniga.

During 's 2-1 win quarter-final win over , Neymar was tackled from behind by Zuniga, with a knee to his back leaving the PSG superstar with fractured vertebrae.

Then at , Neymar was subsequently ruled out of the remainder of the tournament, and missed Brazil's 7-1 loss to in the semi-finals as a result.

Neymar had no idea of the severity of his injury initially, insisting that he wished to continue, and says that it was left-back Marcelo who initially noticed how serious the winger's injury was.

"When he tackles me, I feel a reaction, but I try to get up. I was in a lot of pain and I remember that I had my head on the ground and Marcelo was saying “no, no, get the doctors in.” I said: “No, no, no, I want to play” because I wanted to score," he said in an interview with former team-mate Gerard Pique.



"I couldn’t turn and the doctors came in… I couldn’t manage to lift my legs. I couldn’t move my legs and the doctor took me out and I started to cry because it was painful and I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel my legs, so I went to the hospital that’s in the stadium.

"And there they left me and I remember that I was with my leg bent and when I stretched it out... incredible pain. Incredible. Then I understood that there was no way I could continue."

Neymar has even revealed that the injury was so bad he could have lost the ability to walk completely.

He added: "Then I went to the hospital, did the tests, and they told me: ‘I have two pieces of news. One good and one bad. The bad one: you can’t play at the World Cup, it’s over for you.” And I’m like: ‘what’s the good one?’

"‘The good news is that afterwards, you will be able to walk, because two centimetres to the side… football is over for you.' And, well, there I just wanted them to tell my family. And they were all there, my girlfriend, dad, mom and sister, they tell them that they can see me and, well, then a whole bad week started.

"[I watched the semi-final] at home because when I got injured I went to the team camp where my team-mates were and took my stuff, saw the doctor and so on and then went home by helicopter because I couldn’t move my legs. I was in a wheelchair and I went home, and there I watched it all."