Against the Odds, World Cup Icons Stage Remarkable Comeback
Three of world football’s biggest names, Neymar, Thibaut Courtois and Manuel Neuer, are using the current World Cup as a test of recovery, resilience and staying power after career-threatening injuries. The article says that for each of them, every minute on the pitch is a victory over medical reports, complicated surgeries and long rehabilitation.
Dr. Lior Leber, a senior orthopedic sports surgeon and the chief physician of the Israeli Football Association, says the hardest part of complex knee injuries is not only the long recovery, but returning to the same performance level, intensity and competitiveness as before. He says such injuries often come from twisting contact or bad landings, and frequently require complicated surgery with a high risk of repeat tears.
Neymar’s case is described as the most dramatic. Since October 2023, when he was carried off in tears in Montevideo with a torn ACL and meniscus, he has undergone two surgeries and months of uncertainty. Despite doubts in Brazil, he returned to Carlo Ancelotti’s squad, but was then hurt in his calf only weeks before kickoff, leaving him at the World Cup for the fourth time without full preparation.
Courtois tore his left ACL in a routine warmup in summer 2023 at age 31, missed Belgium’s Euro campaign, then needed another operation on his right knee for a meniscus tear when a comeback was expected in spring 2024. Neuer, now 40, broke his shin while skiing in 2022, had metal screws removed after severe pain, began running only in April 2023, and returned to play six months later. He has looked strong for Bayern Munich this season, but recently suffered calf and left-shin muscle pain.
Leber says Neuer’s main concern is repeat injury, and cites research showing only a 69% return to previous performance level. He also describes a new rehabilitation approach as a kind of “seat belt” for the reconstructed ACL, combining targeted strengthening and coordinated landing, braking, turning and stopping drills with proprioceptive work. He says adding these exercises to warmups can cut these injuries by about 50% and prevent “a lot of heartbreak.”
