Neymar set for World Cup return against South Korea as Brazil eye quarter-finals

The superstar forward has been absent since hurting his ankle in Brazil's opening match in Qatar and their supporters have been sweating on his fitness ever since.

Coach Tite said the 30-year-old would be assessed in Brazil's final pre-game training session on Sunday but gave a heavy hint that the Paris Saint-Germain attacker would start.

"He's going to train this afternoon and if he's OK, he will play tomorrow," Tite told reporters.

Pre-tournament favourites Brazil got their World Cup off to a flying start with a 2-0 win over Serbia and then sealed their place in the knockout phase with a 1-0 victory over Switzerland.

But they went down 1-0 to Cameroon in their final group game and also lost Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus for the rest of the tournament, placing even more onus on Neymar to get back to full fitness.

They face a South Korea side who famously reached the semi-finals 20 years ago when the tournament was hosted between them and Japan, who are also in action on Monday, against Croatia.

The Koreans have not reached the knockout stages since 2010 and only got to the last 16 in Qatar thanks to an injury-time winner from Hwang Hee-chan in their final group game against Portugal.

They will need to do an awfully lot better than a friendly in June when Brazil romped to a 5-1 victory with Neymar scoring two penalties.

"We have good memories of 2002, of making it to the last four, and we want to relive that," said Korean defender Kim Jin-su, who was 10 years old at the time.