Neymar’s injury: elite sport and express recoveries

What is Neymar’s injury and why is there talk of “NASA technology”?

Neymar’s injury is one of those that revolutionizes the sports world, from the press to the last of the fans. Especially if it occurs in the first phase of a competition such as the World Cup.

During the first match played by the Brazilian team in the tournament (against Serbia), the footballer was involved in an action that forced him to leave the match in the 80th minute. He himself “added fuel to the fire” when he uploaded stories to his social networks in which the ankle looked very swollen.

As explained by the doctors of the “verdeamarela” team and ourselves in our last blog post, Neymar suffers an ankle sprain in his right foot.

The press now speaks that the physiotherapists of his selection are using “extraterrestrial” technology to speed up the recovery process, with the aim that Neymar remains in the Qatar 2022 World Cup and is ready to play the knockout stages of the competition.

What does this “last generation” boot do and how does it work?

The technology from another planet used by Brazilian physiotherapists is none other than a state-of-the-art pressotherapy boot from the company Normatec that “combines three different massage techniques and activates blood circulation. It stimulates venous return, reduces swelling, relieves pain, reduces muscle fatigue, eliminates accumulated lactic acid, cramps and improves the healing of soft tissues and bones” ,says the media in its article. Almost a miracle.

We can put the icing on it if we also affirm that this state-of-the-art technology is used for the recovery of athletes of all ranks or levels and that NASA uses it specifically for the injuries of its astronauts.

But the truth is that it is not the first time that Neymar uses this technology to recover from an injury, since the Brazilian star has been using this method since his stay in Barcelona, although according to the media Marca, the model used has some changes with respect to the previous model.

I don’t know what you think but, all this seems like too good, doesn’t it? I will allow myself to make a value judgment in the form of a question:

What will be more valuable for the striker’s recovery? An hour of pressotherapy with the device (make no mistake, it will undoubtedly have its positive effect) or the real work of the rehabilitation team of the “seleçao” that will include therapeutic exercise and a battery of techniques? All this without counting on the efforts of Neymar himself, who will go beyond sitting and waiting for the boot to do its job.

How long will you be off and when will you return?

Tite and the medical staff of Brazil are confident that Neymar is back for the Knockout Stages, since the heptacampeone is already classified mathematically, but it is not yet known if as first or second in the group, so Neymar’s injury with this “NASA technology”, would only miss two group stage matches and will have a recovery according to the data given of almost 100% in only 10 days.

Although in Brazil’s victory against Switzerland his teammate Vinicius, revealed in the statements that Neymar also had a fever. “I’m happy for the win, but sad because Neymar couldn’t be with us. He is a little bad, not only because of the foot, he also had some fever lines, “was the comment by the one who replaced Neymar in the World Cup.

Express recoveries… and consequent relapses in football

There are many cases of footballers who have relapsed for not recovering one hundred percent from their injuries. We are going to talk about the best known cases in the world of football and in the absence of a progressive physiotherapy that respects recovery times: is it better to respect the cycles and times of tissue recovery to promote recovery at the highest level or try to accelerate the processes for the good of the competition?

Ousmane Dembélé

The FC Barcelona attacker had a muscle tear in January 2018 two weeks after overcoming a thigh injury. That area has had him out four more times, with tears and muscle problems since then.

Samuel Umtiti

The knee of the then FC Barcelona center back has been a problem since he decided to avoid the operating room to go to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Between September and November of that year he was on leave and relapsed just over two weeks later until February 2019. After recovering from his calf in June 2020, he fell again from his knee in July through September. When he recovered, he again needed another three months of knee absence.

Gareth Bale

The Welsh attacker overcame adductor discomfort in October 2018 and three days later repeated the problem. In November 2019 he came out of calf problems and three weeks later he was out again due to his thighs.

Diego Costa

In the 2014 Champions League final, the Atlético de Madrid striker arrived dragging a biceps femoris injury, Simeone’s team bet on him and he only lasted nine minutes on the pitch, he relapsed again.

Neymar

Neymar himself already has experience with injury relapses, since in 2019 he had a pseudoarthrosis injury, caused by a poor recovery the year before. That relapse injury did make the PSG striker recover with the appropriate deadlines and without forcing.