Neymar’s bid for a final World Cup triumph has been thrown into jeopardy after a grade two calf injury ruled the 34-year-old forward out of Brazil’s warm-up friendlies and placed a question mark over his participation in the tournament’s opening match. Confirmed by team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar on Thursday, the diagnosis — identical to the one that cost Romário his place at France ’98 — means Neymar will miss Saturday’s home friendly against Panama and a meeting with Egypt in Cleveland on 6 June. With the Seleção’s Group C curtain-raiser against Morocco set for 13 June in New Jersey, the established two- to three-week recovery timeline gives him virtually no margin for the slow buildup a competition of this calibre demands.

Viewed from São Paulo, the development has reopened a wound that never fully healed: Brazil’s awkward dependence on a player whose body no longer offers guarantees. The Brazilian press has been candid in its assessment, with outlets such as Jovem Pan questioning whether it is ‘embarrassing for a powerhouse like Brazil to rely so heavily on a player who physically no longer provides the same reliability’. The fact that Neymar was a surprise inclusion in Carlo Ancelotti’s 26-man squad — having missed recent Santos matches with what his club coach termed a ‘slight injury’ — only amplifies the sense of a gamble that may already be unravelling. Historical echoes are unavoidable: the same calf injury led to Romário’s dramatic pre-tournament exclusion in 1998, a parallel that Brazilian football cannot look away from.

Ancelotti’s anxieties are palpable. Reports from the Jawa Pos group indicate the Italian had been counting on Neymar’s experience to anchor a frontline that blends youth and stardom. Now, the coach must contemplate alternatives — a conversation mirrored in unexpected quarters: in Indonesia, a volleyball coach declared his idolisation of Neymar and lamented the potential loss, while a local outlet listed ready-made replacements. Within the Brazil camp, the moment is charged with protective tension; veteran midfielder Casemiro recently moved to clarify comments about teenage prodigy Endrick, insisting he was shielding the youngster from suffocating public expectation, a subplot that underlines the broader fragility of a squad navigating the twilight of its icon.

For a global audience, the question is whether Brazil can evolve beyond its talisman. Analysts in London note that the modern game increasingly punishes teams built around a single transcendent but brittle figure. Neymar’s artistry remains unmatched, yet the accumulated trauma of repeated muscular breakdowns — this is the latest in a cascade of calf and thigh issues — erodes the foundation on which Ancelotti’s tournament strategy was built. If Neymar misses the Morocco clash, the Seleção will have to prove the depth of its regeneration early, in a group that also features Haiti and Scotland. The setback may yet force a necessary recalibration; if it deepens into a full-blown crisis, it could become the mirror in which Brazil sees the end of an era.