SAINT PETERSBURG, June 21 -- Neymar is certain to start in Brazil's World Cup Group E match against Costa Rica here despite limping out of training during the week, coach Tite said on Thursday.
Neymar earlier completed a 90-minute training session with Brazil's squad and looked untroubled by an ankle problem that forced him to leave a practice session early on Tuesday.
When asked if the Paris Saint-Germain forward would be available to play on Thursday were it not a World Cup match, Tite replied: "Yes, yes. It's not a sacrifice. It's an evolutionary process, you just speed up the steps. Yes, he would be playing. It's not a sacrifice.
"We want to win, it's a World Cup, but the coach is not going to risk a player's health by being dishonest to him. That's a price that's too high to pay.
"Those values of health and honesty, no way, there's no compromise."
Tite said last week that Neymar was yet to reach full fitness after undergoing surgery to repair a broken fifth metatarsal in his right foot in March. The 26-year-old spent more than three months on the sidelines before making a scoring return in Brazil's 2-0 friendly victory over Croatia on June 3.
Neymar played the full 90 minutes in Brazil's 1-1 draw with Switzerland in their opening World Cup fixture on Sunday, the first time he has seen out an entire match since February.
He was targeted for some rough treatment by the Swiss and the 10 fouls he suffered was the most for any player in a World Cup game since Alan Shearer in 1998.
"He had a knock, but I think it was the first time in three-and-a-half months he played 90 minutes," Tite said.
"We are calm. Five matches is the minimum you need to be fully fit and he has already sped up the process."
Serbia, who beat Costa Rica in their first match here, lead Group E with three points while Brazil and Switzerland have one point each.