{"id":31093,"date":"2014-07-11T08:41:16","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T08:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=31093"},"modified":"2014-07-11T10:43:36","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T10:43:36","slug":"tearful-neymar-i-was-almost-paralysed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=31093","title":{"rendered":"Tearful Neymar: I was almost paralysed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brazil’s Neymar broke down in tears as he claimed the challenge that ended his World Cup came close to paralysing him.<\/p>\n

The Barcelona forward, 22, fractured a vertebra in his spine when he was kneed in the back by Colombia’s Juan Zuniga during Brazil’s 2-1 quarter-final win.<\/p>\n

“I thank God for helping me, because if that blow had been a few inches lower I would have risked being paralysed,” said Neymar.<\/p>\n

Brazil went on to lose 7-1 to Germany in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

\"Neymar\"<\/div>\n

World governing body Fifa said no disciplinary action could be taken against Zuniga because the incident was dealt with at the time by referee Velasco Carballo.<\/p>\n

Neymar said Zuniga called him the next day to say sorry but the former Santos player stopped short of forgiving the Colombian for the challenge.<\/p>\n

“I don’t hate him, I don’t hold a grudge, but I don’t feel anything,” said Neymar. “It’s difficult to talk about a move that ended happening in such an important moment of my career.<\/p>\n

“I won’t say he came to injure me – I don’t know what was going on in his head – but everyone who understands football can see that it wasn’t a normal challenge.”<\/p>\n

Neymar left Brazil’s training camp by helicopter on Saturday but returned to the mountain city of Teresopolis, near Rio, on Thursday ahead of Brazil’s third-place play-off match against Netherlands on Saturday.<\/p>\n

He said he hoped Argentina would beat Germany in Sunday’s World Cup final because Barcelona club-mates Lionel Messi and Javier Mascherano play for the Argentines.<\/p>\n

On Messi, he added: “He’s won almost everything and I think he deserves to be champion. He is my team-mate and my friend.”<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Neymar at the World Cup<\/h2>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n

Matches played<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Minutes played<\/td>\n457<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Attempts on target<\/td>\n72.2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Goals scored<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Assists<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"NeymarNeymar was the first Brazilian to be involved in five goals in one World Cup since 2002<\/div>\n
\"Neymar\"Neymar was airlifted home from Brazil’s training camp in Teresopolis near Rio de Janeiro on Saturday<\/div>\n
\"Neymar\"Neymar returned to Brazil’s training base on Thursday.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
–<\/div>\n
Source BBC Sport<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazil’s Neymar broke down in tears as he claimed the challenge that ended his World Cup came close to paralysing him. The Barcelona forward, 22, fractured a vertebra in his spine when he was kneed in the back by Colombia’s Juan Zuniga during Brazil’s 2-1 quarter-final win. “I thank God for helping me, because if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":31096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[115,29,1581,3,771],"class_list":["post-31093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-armyworms","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-election-2016-defeat","tag-ghana-news","tag-immigration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}