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Raging Neymar forced off by refereeing error as Santos lose

Neymar was involved in a furious dispute with match officials after he was substituted by mistake as his Santos team lost 3-0 to visiting Cortiba on Sunday.

On the day before the announcement of the Brazilian squad for the World Cup, the oft-injured 34-year-old was receiving treatment in the 65th minute on the far side of the field from the team benches.

Neymar did not notice when the fourth official held up his number 10. By the time he was ready to return, play had restarted with Robinho Jr, the 18-year-old son of former Brazil star Robinho, on the pitch.

Neymar trotted back on and was told by the referee to leave.

Furious, he demanded to see the hand-written substitution note handed to the fourth official. It showed that Santos manager Cuca had wanted to take off number 31, Gonzalo Escobar but apparently had not spotted the wrong number before the game resumed.

Santos were already three goals down. The defeat dropped them into the Brazilian Serie A relegations places.

It was a last chance for Neymar to impress Brazil manager Carlo Ancelotti, who has so far ignored Brazil’s all-time leading international scorer.

Neymar, who missed the start of the season after knee surgey, has played in only half of his club’s 16 league games this season, but he has scored four goals while collecting five yellow cards

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