Paris Saint-Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino is saddened by Neymar’s adductor injury but is remaining optimistic over his soon return to action.
Neymar was diagnosed with a left adductor injury on Thursday. The Brazilian suffered the injury during PSG’s recent Coupe de France round of 64 fixture against Caen.
For the moment, Neymar is expected to miss around four weeks of action due to the injury, but could possibly return sooner pending his recovery process.
For Pochettino, he will have to move forward without his star talent for next week’s UEFA Champions League Round of 16 first leg clash against FC Barcelona.
As Pochettino told the Spanish-based outlet Onda Cero’s “El Transistor”, Neymar was very much looking forward to facing his old team for the first time since leaving the Catalan powerhouse.
“Neymar is very sad, he was very excited to return to Barcelona, to play against Barca, he likes this competition very much,” Pochettino said.
“It is a great loss for us. We hope to have Neymar for the second leg.”
Pochettino also noted that he had planned to sub off Neymar during the second half of the Caen fixture, but the forward wound up suffering the injury in the end.
“Just before Neymar’s injury, we were going to make the change,” Pochettino said. “Because of his play, Neymar often gets tackled too much, maybe the referees should apply common sense and protect a little more. Neymar enjoys the ball at his feet, he is like that playing football. He is like that in training too.”
PSG will simply have to find a way to pick up a keen result against Barca next week without its star forward.
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