Brazil is in something approaching mourning after losing their star player and favourite son for the rest of the tournament. Neymar's suffering from a fractured vertebra, and the reflexive response is to feel very, very sad. The second response, one might imagine, is to find someone to blame, and that someone will almost certainly be Colombia right back Juan Camilo Zúñiga, whose knee was directly involved in the aforementioned fracture.
FIFA considering retroactive sanctions over Neymar injury
Jamie McDonald
It won’t be long until half the country’s calling for blood, and it sounds like FIFA will pre-empt them:
Fifa disciplinary committee analysing incident that led to Neymar #bra injury, considering whether action to be taken against Zuniga #col
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) July 5, 2014 It’s difficult to say whether the challenge warrants retroactive action. By the game’s (ridiculously rough-and-tumble) standards, it was hardly worth mentioning. Brazil wanted a violent match and the referee gave it to them; that Zúñiga joined in the action late on and hurt Neymar in the process is unfortunate but probably not worth crucifying him over. At the same time it was a knee to the back that broke a vertebra, and that sort of thing is generally uncalled for.
Since Colombia are now out of the World Cup, a suspension won't mean a great deal for the tournament. Instead, expect any ban Zúñiga does serve to carry over to the 2015 Copa América.
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