Brazil manager Tite has admitted he made a mistake by not substituting Juventus defender Danilo earlier in the game between his team and Serbia.
The Brazilians won the game 2-0, but it came at a cost after Danilo and Neymar suffered ankle injuries.
Tite has now admitted he should have subbed them off earlier, as the very physical Serbians kept the tackles flying in.
He said via Football Italia:
“It was not a reckless tackle, the player [Milenkovic] didn’t want to hurt Neymar, but maybe somebody before him wanted to do so.
“I hadn’t figured out how much Neymar was hurt, but I subbed him off after finding out. I should have replaced him and Danilo earlier,”
Juve FC Says
Danilo is one of the fittest players in our squad and this injury means he was hit hard by his opponents.
We back him to return to fitness soon to contribute to his country’s quest to win the competition.
More importantly, we need him to be fit when he returns from the competition so that he can make a contribution to our team.
We ended the first half of the season very well and must start the second in similarly good form.
