Neymar may sit out either Copa America or Olympics

Neymar still doesn’t know if he will be called up to take part in both the Olympics and the Copa America this summer. The physical exhaustion the Barcelona forward could suffer may provoke the CBF into a decision which will only see him play one of the two competitions. 

The Copa America will take place in June (3-26), while the Olympics will be celebrated in August (4-26) in Brazil. If you add in the World Cup qualifiers and Barça’s three competitions, Neymar could head into next season having played a ridiculous amount of games, 

According to Gilmar Rinaldi, Brazil’s national team coordinator, speaking to Globo, the CBF will speak about the subject: “We are going to talk with the players and the clubs. It’s a physical question. In the coming days Dunga will give me names of the three over-age players he proposes for the Olympics. After the qualifiers in March against Uruguay and Paraguay, we will talk personally with those players.” 

Neymar, who has shown his interest in playing both competitions, has made it clear he’s desperate to win the Olympics with Brazil. It could be the Copa America, therefore, that he misses. “The player really wants to come to the Olympics, which take place when he’s on [post-season]. That’s to say, the clubs are not obliged to lend them to us,” Grinali added.

Remember that Tata Martino has already ruled out Lionel Messi’s participation in the Olympics.