World Cup briefing: Neymar injury scare and Harry Kane aims for the top

Brazil star limps out of training, England
captain wants to be the best and Japan and Senegal fans are praised
for cleaning stadiums

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According to ESPN, the Brazilian doctor has said it was the
ankle playing up – the result of a hefty Swiss challenge in
Sunday’s 1-1 draw – and nothing to do with the foot injury he
suffered at the start of the year.

“Neymar trained a little, felt the pain, returned to
physical therapy and trains normally [today],” said Dr Rodrigo
Lasmar, who added that everyone should “calm down” and stop
assuming the worse.

Brazil play Costa Rica on Friday in their second World Cup group E game and Philippe Coutinho
sounded confident that his teammate will be fit.

“Neymar is OK,” he said, mindful of the fact he had been
fouled ten times by the Swiss. “All matches will be like this and
we have to live with that.”

Kane: I want to be the best

England captain Harry Kane wants to join Portugal’s
Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina’s Lionel Messi as one of the best
players in the world.

Kane scored twice in the 2-1 victory against Tunisia on Monday
and the group G double takes him to 15 goals in 25 games for
England, the BBC reports. His club record for Tottenham
is 135 goals in the past four seasons.  

Ronaldo has scored 450 for Real Madrid while
Messi has 552 for Barcelona – but Kane has
belief that he can reach the same levels of success. He said: “To
be the best player in the world you have to aim high. You can’t aim
low.

“I want to prove myself at a major tournament. I want to
be up there with the best in the world and the only way to do that
is to perform on the big stage and in the big moments. I had to
prove people wrong throughout my career and I love proving to
myself that I can do it.

“Ronaldo is the best in the world, up there with Messi,
but the challenge is there to be with them. I have been itching to
get out there and showcase myself on the big stage.”

Japan and Senegal fans clean up

Are Japan and Senegal supporters the most polite in world
football?

Following their nation’s 2-1 victory against Colombia
yesterday in group H, Japanese fans stayed behind at the Mordovia
Arena to clean the stadium and take away their litter.

The Japanese have cemented their reputation as the World Cup’s
best guests, says The Sun, after another clear-up job in 2014
when fans “took bin bags with them to the game against Ivory
Coast”. 

It wasn’t just the Japanese who impressed with their good
manners, but also the fans of Senegal following their 2-1 win
against Poland. A video shared on social media by Argentinian TV
channel TyC Sports shows Senegal fans “scouring the stands for
rubbish and assembling it in a single pile”, the Independent reports. 

The video has been viewed more than four million times and
the TyC Sports caption reads: “Senegal pulled off a historic
victory. But instead of partying in the minutes after the end of
the game, they tasked themselves with cleaning up their section
before leaving. #Respect.”