Neymar Is Trying to Come Back. The Question Is Whether His Knee Will Let Him.

There was a time when Neymar was the most exciting footballer on the planet.

Not the best. That debate belonged to Messi and Ronaldo. But the most exciting — the player who made you stop what you were doing and just watch. The dribbles. The flicks. The sheer joy he played with. Nobody brought that combination of skill and personality quite like Neymar Jr.

Then the injuries started. A broken metatarsal. A recurring ankle problem. And in October 2023, while playing for Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, he tore his ACL — one of the most serious injuries in sport. The recovery takes a year at minimum. It requires surgery, months of rehabilitation, and then the psychological challenge of trusting the repaired knee under match conditions.

Neymar is 34 now. He has been working through the comeback process and reports have indicated he wants to return to competitive football. Whether Al-Hilal or another club is his destination — and whether he is truly fit enough to play at the level he demands of himself — remains the story that Brazilian and global football fans are watching closely.

Brazil are at the World Cup without him. They qualified. They are one of the favourites. But everyone who watched Brazil's 2022 World Cup campaign knows they missed Neymar at key moments.

The question the sport is asking right now is simple: can he come back as the player he was? ACL recoveries at 34, after a career of injuries, are not guaranteed. Some players do it. Some never quite get back to where they were.

Neymar has made a career out of defying expectations. But this time, the opponent is his own body — and that is the hardest fight of all.