Brazil vs Haiti live updates: World Cup 2026 game latest score and news

This has the potential to turn into a public relations nightmare for Brazil. Neymar was a divisive pick in the first place.

When Ancelotti did name him in his 26-man squad, many in Brazil felt that he was going against his own, repeated insistence that he would only select players who were 100 per cent fit.

He had mostly said that about Neymar himself. And while the forward did, in fairness, put together a run of games in April and May, he was carrying a calf injury when he arrived at Brazil’s training camp.

The issue turned out to be more significant than the Brazil hierarchy had assumed, but they decided to let the situation play out. Neymar missing the pre-tournament friendlies was not ideal but not a huge deal either.

The first game against Morocco … well, that felt like a line. Now that he looks set to miss the Haiti game as well, Ancelotti is going to come under a huge amount of scrutiny.

If Brazil’s World Cup is anything less than a success from this point, Neymar-gate is going to dominate the post-mortem and rightly so.