Ancelotti reacts to reports about dropping Neymar from World Cup Squad

Brazil manager Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that he will not drop Neymar from his 26-man World Cup squad, despite the forward suffering a recent grade 2 calf muscle injury

Ancelotti expects Neymar to be available for Brazil’s opening World Cup match against Morocco, but he’s willing to wait for him until the second game if needed.

“To be clear, Neymar is going to be with us. We think he can recover for the first match (against Morocco) and, if not, for the second (against Haiti). No doubt that these 26 players are going to play in the World Cup.”

Ancelotti also admitted that Brazil don’t have the same star power they used to ahead of this summer’s World Cup. “The more experienced player has to have more responsibility, the younger player has to have less pressure. We all have a lot of responsibility and pressure,” Ancelotti told reporters during a press conference.

“And what should we do? Share it. It can’t be individual; we have to share the pressure so that it decreases a little. Sometimes, we talk a lot about how Brazil doesn’t have a star. It might be true, we don’t have Pele, Romario and Ronaldo, but we can have a shared responsibility.”

“We’ve worked a lot on defense. We’re going to work a lot on that. I don’t want to take away the creativity of the attacking players. They have a lot of quality, I don’t want to create confusion. Defensively, it’s a daily piece of information until the last game of the World Cup. Our work is focused on that. The defenders, full-backs, midfielders, they all have a very important role.”