DOHA, Qatar, (AFP) – Brazil star Neymar will leave a Qatar sports hospital on Sunday to rest before starting rehabilitation after an operation on his ankle, officials said.

Doctors at the Aspetar hospital would not give a date when the 31-year-old Paris Saint-Germain striker would return to action but they are confident that Friday’s surgery was a success.

PSG said before the operation the forward could be out for up to four months, ruling him out of the rest of this season.

“Neymar Junior was operated yesterday, it was very successful,” Hakim Chalabi, assistant director general at the Aspetar hospital and an advisor to PSG’s medical team, told AFP.

“Right now he is very good and he is happy.

“He is not so painful and the surgeons who operated are very happy.”

Neymar will leave the 50-bed specialist sports hospital on Sunday, officials said.

Chalabi said that after a period of rest, PSG will start physiotherapy.

“Later on we will evaluate a time for a return on the field. Right now it is a bit soon to talk about.”

“He is going to be on crutches for a few days but then after he should be back to half weight lifting.”

Neymar was stretchered off with his latest injury in a Ligue 1 game against Lille last month. He injured the same ankle in 2018.

Chalabi said that after the operation, Neymar “should be back at a normal level but with less risk of injury.”

Fitness has been a regular concern since PSG signed Neymar for a world-record 222 million euros ($264m) in 2017.

He has played only 112 of PSG’s 228 Ligue 1 matches since his arrival.