Scotland's World Cup opponents set to leave 79-goal icon out of squad as 'end of an era' claim made

The 34-year-old is the country’s all-time leading goal-scorer with 79 goals, and featured prominently for Brazil at the last three tournaments, but looks set to be left at home when Carlo Ancelotti’s side head to North America in June due to a debate over his fitness.

Entering the tournament as one of the bookies’ favourites, Ancelotti’s team will begin their World Cup campaign against Morocco in New Jersey on June 13, before taking on Haiti in Philadelphia six days later. They will complete their group fixtures with a clash against Scotland in Miami on June 24.

The Italian head coach has already courted controversy after opting to leave Neymar out of the squad for the recent friendly games against France and Croatia. Despite the Santos marksman scoring three goals in four league appearances since returning from injury in February, Ancelotti claimed he required players to be at “100%” to play for the national team.

“I’m going to talk about it here, because I can’t just let it slide,” said Neymar following his omission from the latest squad. “Obviously, I’m upset and sad about not being called up. But the focus remains day after day, training after training, game after game. We’re going to achieve our goal.

“There’s still one final call-up left, and the dream lives on. That’s it, we’re in this together. My desire is to return to the national team, and to play in the World Cup, but that doesn’t depend on me. That’s up to the coaching staff to decide, and of course, whether I’m there or not, I will always support the national team.”

However, several reports now claim the 66-year-old head coach has already decided against taking the former Barcelona forward to the World Cup. It said that Ancelotti wants to rejuvenate Brazil on the international stage, and build a team without the star forward that is ‘more focused on collective play and building a team that can adapt to different needs and opponents.’

MARCA claim that the former Real Madrid boss could signal the end of an era for Neymar, with his hopes of going to the World Cup now rated as slim, despite there still being 69 days before the tournament begins. Ancelotti has reportedly already made up his mind on which players will be included in his squad for the World Cup, with 24 of the 26 players travelling to North America “already guaranteed a spot” by the Italian.

It is believed that there are three players vying for the final two spots in the squad, with Lucas Paqueta, Endrick, and Igor Thiago being the trio players for whom a final decision has yet to be made, leaving Neymar out of the picture ahead of the tournament.

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