Brazilian legend Pele has likened Neymar's World Cup-ending injury to the one that he suffered at the 1962 tournament.

Neymar, Brazil's poster boy, had his tournament ended when a challenge from Colombia's Juan Zuniga broke one of his vertebrae in yesterday's quarter-final.

"@neymarjr was raised in my @santosfc and it hurts our hearts to know that he can no longer defend Brazil in the World Cup," tweeted the former striker.

"I was also injured during the 1962 World Cup in Chile, and I was out for the rest of the tournament, but God helped Brazil continue on to win the Championship.

"I hope the same will happen with our Selecao in this World Cup."

Brazil went on to win yesterday's game 2-1 and now face Germany in Tuesday's semi-final in Belo Horizonte.

FIFA have said that they are retrospectively analysing Zuniga's challenge.

Written by
Pascal Lemesre