Christophe Dugarry, a former French World Cup winner, has expressed his delight at the news that Neymar has been ruled out for the rest of the season due to an ankle injury. The Paris Saint-Germain forward was stretchered off in tears during the team’s 4-3 win over Lille on February 19 and it was later confirmed that he would need surgery in Qatar to repair ankle ligaments. This means that Neymar will miss playing around his sister Rafaella’s birthday on March 11 for the ninth time in ten seasons.
While PSG will undoubtedly miss Neymar’s presence on the pitch, Dugarry believes that his long-term absence is good news for the Ligue 1 leaders. In fact, he went as far as to say that he is happy that Neymar is injured. Dugarry thinks that this is an incredible opportunity for Christophe Galtier and that the team is much more balanced with five defenders, three midfielders, and Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi up front.
Dugarry’s scathing assessment of Neymar is that he finds him insufferable in his dribbling and with his attitude. He doesn’t want to see him on the field anymore and is tired of him. However, Dugarry does worry about PSG’s lack of depth in attack should either Messi or Mbappe be ruled out for any period of time. The only other senior forward at manager Galtier’s disposal is the 20-year-old Hugo Ekitike, who is on loan from Reims. Dugarry believes that Ekitike has shown that he is still not at the desired level and that the other attackers are also mediocre.
Neymar’s injury comes as a big blow to PSG in their hopes of overturning the deficit in their Champions League second leg against Bayern Munich. However, Dugarry seems to think that PSG will be better off without Neymar in the long run. It remains to be seen how PSG will cope without their star player, but they will undoubtedly be hoping that Messi and Mbappe can step up to fill the void left by Neymar’s absence.