Neymar Jr. returned to Santos hoping to regain full fitness and establish himself as a regular starter ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Those plans, however, were repeatedly disrupted by injuries that limited his time on the field, even though his season ultimately ended with heroic performances that helped the club avoid relegation. Still, according to his father and agent, the physical setbacks nearly pushed Neymar to walk away from professional soccer altogether.
Throughout 2025, Neymar suffered multiple muscle injuries that sidelined him for more than 20 matches with Santos, derailing his plans of returning to the Brazil national team. But it was the meniscus injury he suffered late in the season that affected him most, not only because of the injury itself, but because news of it leaked before Neymar had even been informed of the diagnosis, with reports suggesting he would not return until 2026.
Speaking on the Rafa Tecla T YouTube channel, Neymar’s father detailed the situation: “We were monitoring Neymar all the time, constantly trying to take him out. But he’s a guy who never holds back on the field. You can’t make him hold back. Next thing you know, he’s tracking back, asking for the ball all the time. He’s extremely competitive. How do you control that? By keeping him off the field — that’s the only way.”
Neymar Sr. also addressed the mental toll the situation took on his son, something Neymar himself has spoken about publicly. “You only put him in when you truly have peace of mind. Just like now. He had a meniscus injury. The press leaked it before we even talked to him, and his head just went to zero. For a moment, I couldn’t save my son’s mental state. It hits him hard — people saying Neymar won’t play again this year. His mind just collapses,” he admitted.
Joao Victor of Mirassol helps Neymar Junior of Santos get up.
He then described a pivotal conversation with Neymar at home: “When I get home, I go to my son’s place and ask: ‘Son, what’s up? How are you?’ He looks at me and says: ‘I can’t take it anymore, man. Let’s do the surgery. Dad… I don’t even know if it’s worth operating. For me, that’s it.’ When he said that, I answered: ‘That’s it? Then why operate? Just do the surgery and we stop, and next year we’ll think about what to do.’ Then I told him: ‘Son, if you want to have the surgery so we can focus on your recovery and you can be well, I’m with you.’”
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Neymar’s father then tried to refocus his son on the World Cup as a final objective: “I started talking to him, telling him a few things: ‘You know what it is? There’s a narrative out there. A few very noisy people — not many, but extremely loud — who want to make you give up. If we give up… there’s very little left, man. Six months. After June, July, I don’t know if we’ll win or not. But I’ll go with you. Then I think we’ve fulfilled our mission, whether we’re champions or not. But you have to be in it. You can’t accept what those noisy people are doing. You can’t listen to what’s coming from the outside.’”
Neymar’s dramatic return to the pitch
With Santos still hovering near the relegation zone, expectations were that Neymar would miss the final matches of the 2025 Brasileirão, leaving the club in a precarious position after he sat out a 1-1 draw with Internacional due to his knee injury. Instead, the Brazilian forward made a calculated gamble and returned to training, heavily bandaged to limit stress on his meniscus.
The day after that conversation, Neymar made a decisive move. “The next morning he messages me: ‘I’m going to train. I’ll see if I can handle it.’ He goes there, does everything. He said he felt a little pain, but he managed to train. Then he started shooting with his left foot, with his right. I said: ‘Man, are you crazy? Just try running. Just moving around the field is already enough.’ He looked at me, nodded his head. ‘I think it works,'” his father said.
Neymar Junior of Santos runs with the ball in front of Fagner of Cruzeiro with his knee protected.
Nine days after suffering the meniscus injury against Mirassol, Neymar returned against last-place Sport Recife in a crucial relegation battle. He played the full 90 minutes, scored the opening goal, and added an assist in a 3-0 victory, a performance that sparked a run of results that ultimately secured Santos’ survival and helped pave the way for Neymar’s contract renewal with the Peixe.
Neymar’s father pointed to that match as the turning point: “He goes into the match, and we’re hoping that the flap of the torn meniscus doesn’t move out of place. He goes out there and scores. At the moment of the goal, he looks at me. We look at each other and, man, it was incredible. He said: ‘Now I’m going all the way in these last three matches.’ I told him: ‘Just sleep in a way that doesn’t move your knee (laughs).’ Because the injury wasn’t going to get worse. It wasn’t an ACL or anything like that.”
