Brazil looking to reduce the pressure on Neymar ahead of World Cup

The PSG star joined 16 of his international colleagues for physical and medical tests on Monday as the 'Seleçao' ramp up their preparations for this summer's tournament in Russia at their Granja Comary training camp in Teresopolis, just outside Rio de JAneiro.

A meeting with national team manager Tite was also in Neymar's plans, with the Brazil boss eager to reduce the expectations on Neymar following his spell on the sidelines.

"Neymar will hear from Tite that he spent three months off the pitch and will not be the exceptional Neymar after that," explained Brazilian Football Confederation coordinator Edu Gaspar.

"We will create some ground for him to get his self-confidence back, and that it goes up without too much pressure on his performances."

Neymar's last competitive appearance came back in February, when suffered a broken metatarsal against Marseille.

However, he returned to full training in France with his club side last week and Gaspar says that Brazil have a training plan in place to ensure Brazil's star man is in peak condition come the start of the tournament.

"Neymar will keep doing what he is doing at Paris Saint-Germain. There is a physical part, then a technical one. But there will also be the emotional part, so he has the real magnitude of what we are thinking," Gaspar said. 

"We are not thinking only about Neymar, we will have communication strategies for every athlete."

Brazil will face Croatia and Austria in pre-tournament friendlies, with Neymar expected to make his return in the first of those two games on June 3.

"Today, we talked about playing those two games as if they were the World Cup," Gaspar concluded.

"We need total reality then, so we start the tournament well. We studied those two teams tactically and saw they were ideal for those friendlies. For now, they are more important than our (World Cup) opener."