Not sure the ref really knew what to do - guess he didn't want to ruin the game by getting cards out early but players certainly took advantage of his display.

Such a shame for Neymar - and must really damage Brazil as an attacking force given the performances of their other strikers.

No Thiago Silva either who put in a decent shift last night. If ever the rest of the team needed to step up to the plate, it's now!!

Maybe Fred will come good? Then again....

This WC has lost some charisma now, without the Brazil No 10 Neymar.

Strange how rugby players take so many more hard hits, in comparison though footballers sustain just as many injuries. In rugby union tackling in the air is banned however it is allowed in football, where it too can be dangerous, as we saw last night.

I am not sure lifting him up and throwing Neymar onto the stretcher was a great idea given the injury suffered!

I suppose this will be the reason they will use when Germany knock them out the World Cup !

No- I was saying to friends it looked like they were picking him up to throw him in the skip!

Yeah in Premier League games it seems to take about 10 mins to take someone off the pitch who's got suspected spinal damage.

They possibly thought he was crying wolf, but it does show the nature of healthcare over there, even to a multimillionaire star footballer

It's no laughing matter, but the way you put it was .........

Their stretchers look like some sort of plastic bucket, and the way they were holding it and jogging with poor Neymar lying flat out in it, could only have done more damage to his spine.

I couldn't believe they did not put him in a neck brace and stabilise his spine, before gently putting him a motorised trolley to take him from the pitch.

Apparently they have only used Motorised Trolly's at one world cup and that was 1994 in America.
My dad calls it the Bread Basket because it looks so dangerous. I dare say it did probably cause his injury to become worse. I doubt that will publically be mentioned as with Brazil social situation it could trigger riots.

Oh no - GUTTED for him!! And the World Cup!

That was appalling, but my take on this injury is that Neymar should not have got that injury as a result of that challenge. We see that type of foul in every game and the fouled player usually gets up. I suspect that he has a weakness, maybe as a result of too much football/ exercise too young.
We have seen it before in young players and athletes, their bones do not develop as well as they should during growth phases, then injury after injury leads to early retirement from the game or sport.

Im not sure about that, he took a full on running knee to the spine.

As with Brazil players who wear the number 10 shirt, he has talent, skill and is the charismatic symbol of Brazilian football.

Other players who wore the number 10 jersey for Brazil just trip off the tongue ...... Pele, Zico, Leonardo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinjo.

IIRC I think Leonardo wore the number 16 shirt for a World Cup, however he did get that to wear that number 10 shirt at some point so didn't want to miss him out as I loved watching him play.


Hopefully Brazil can still go on and beat Germany!!

Was this the same ref that didn't send off Godin against England ?

Sounds to me like the kind of injury that could seriously damage his career.

He may "recover" but likely to never be the same again

That's quite a generous view. In my own opinion, he was a hometown ref and trying to help the Brazilians to win but in that case it blew up in his face as it resulted in Neymar being stretchered off.

Agreed.

The ref lost control of the game almost from the first minute. He should never be in charge of an international game again, as frankly he acted as a 12th man for Brazil.

Oh, from shooting the guy to locking him up.... (is that before or after shooting him btw?)

I see you really lack a sense of proportion, as if people went around shooting players who put the boot in, the country would be littered with bodies.

I suggest you watch a less taxing game, such as tiddlywinks, as there is less chance of you getting overexcited.

And how many times a year do we see that?
Never heard of same result?
Young, healthy people do not get that kind of damage from the foul, more the way he landed and then was treated immediately afterwards.
I would argue that he had some damage and then being flung into a large plastic tray back first, played a part in worsening it.

I don't think it was just Brazil being hyped up, I suspect it was because they feared Colombia's passing game and felt the only way they could win was by bullying and disrupting them with constant fouls (which doesn't reflect well on the Brazilians at all).

The Colombians were very naive in sinking to Brazil's level but they were getting no help from the hometown ref either.

Yes, Carlos Velasco Carballo, one of Spain's top refs. Apparently he's very strict but word is that FIFA warned refs not to be too strict. I can understand this because an entertaining even game can be ruined by a borderline red card. But there were tackles yesterday like Zuniga's that deserved a straight red. Just hope a FIFA panel will act retrospectively.

It's funny, I was reading an article about how the Schumacher incident from 1982, which endangered the safety of a player, would be dealt with today - red card and long ban. Yet Zuniga broke Neymar's vertebrae just like what Schumacher did to Battiston, yet again 32 years later, not even a booking!

While you can call the Columbians "naïve" I feel they had no choice as they simply weren't allowed to play football.

Really feel for Neymar, but he was far from the innocent, and constantly threw himself on the floor at the slightest touch. I think it could have been a great game, full of what we want to see. But what we got was a total shambles of a "game", due to a ref, and assistants totally incapable of running the match....

Taking a leaf out of abcd's book, how about we on DS hire a hit man and rub out the ref, it would save the game from more terrible decisions?....

Oh come on! They are hardly comparable. Neymar got a knee in the back and rolled about in his usual fashion. Quoting from a report at the time "Battiston fell to the ground unconscious, with damaged vertebrae and teeth knocked out, later slipping into a coma. Emergency medics had to administer oxygen on the pitch." Can you see the difference?