Brazil’s Neymar suffered an injury scare on Tuesday and limped out of training.

The 26-year-old, who had returned from injury only recently, winced in pain during a ‘rondo’ practice session, where players try to keep the ball away from two attackers who are in the middle of a square. “Neymar came out of training today with a painful right ankle,” said Vinicius Rodrigues, a spokesman for the Brazilian Football Confederation.

Neymar had not taken part in training on Monday, as the side returned to their base in Sochi on Russia’s Black Sea coast. Rodrigues said the problem concerned his ankle and not the foot he fractured in February, an injury that forced him to miss the rest of the club campaign.

“As soon as he felt the pain he went to the physio. He will stay there for today and tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, and will train as normal tomorrow,” added Rodrigues. Brazil are due to travel to Saint Petersburg, where they will play Friday’s game against Costa Rica.

This has raised a fear similar to the 2014 World Cup, where Neymar suffered a nasty injury during the quarter-finals, which kept him out of the five-time winners’s 1-7 drubbing of Germany in the semi-final at Belo Horizonte.

Neymar had only recently returned to competitive football after suffering an ankle injury during a French Ligue 1 game between Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille in March. The Brazilian talisman subsequently sat out for the rest of the season, and his participation at the showpiece event was in doubt.

Neymar had a modest game during Brazil’s opening encounter, which ended in a 1-1 draw against Switzerland. The well-drilled Swiss defence marked out Neymar for large spells during the game. The former Santos and Barcelona forward was also at the receiving end of plenty of cynical fouls, and was spotted grimacing in pain and lying on the floor on a number of occasions.

(With inputs from AFP)