Neymar or no more for fancied Brazil

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Neymar will start for Brazil in a mostly unchanged lineup against Costa Rica on Friday at the World Cup.

Although Brazil coach Tite said Neymar still needs time to reach peak shape, he insisted he is not endangering the striker’s health.

“Yes, he will be playing. There’s no sacrifice here,” Tite said through a translator Thursday. “We want to win but the coach is not going to play around with a player’s health, the price would be too high to pay.”

Tite was expected to use the same 11 players that were held to a 1-1 draw by Switzerland in the team’s opening match, but right back Danilo got injured in the team’s final training session on Thursday and will be replaced by Fagner.

Neymar limped out of a training session on Tuesday after appearing to hurt his right ankle. But on Wednesday, the Brazilian soccer confederation posted photos and a video of Neymar training with the rest of the squad and said he was fine.

“It’s an evolutionary process. You need to speed up the steps,” Tite said. “He’s already speeded up that process.”

The world’s most expensive player, who joined Paris Saint-Germain for 222 million euros ($260 million) from Barcelona, only just made it to the World Cup after breaking a toe in his right foot on Feb. 25.