FIFA World Cup 2018

NEYMAR'S RETURN 'BETTER THAN EXPECTED'

Brazil's star forward Neymar is returning to training "better than expected," after more than two months out with a broken foot bone, the Brazilian team physical trainer said Wednesday.

The Paris Saint-Germain striker, who was injured in February and underwent surgery in Brazil, is in training with the national team in Teresopolis, near Rio de Janeiro, ahead of the World Cup in Russia.

"He has evolved well. He trains every day. I could even say that his development is better than expected," the trainer, Fabio Mahseredjian, told journalists.

Team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar, who led the operation on Neymar in March, said "he's regaining his usual movements bit by bit. The next step is full group training and then play games. Everything is being done for him to feel at ease."

KOSCIELNY SENDS HIS BEST TO FRANCE

Ruled out of the World Cup with a ruptured Achilles tendon, Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny has written a letter of encouragement to the France squad, national coach Didier Deschamps said on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old, who has 50 France caps, was stretchered out of Arsenal's Europa League semifinal defeat to Atletico Madrid two weeks ago.

"He's a man on whom you can count and I told him that if he wants to he's more than welcome to pay us a visit," said Deschamps.

"It was a good idea and I've shown the letter to the players. There's everything in there from a man who knows what an international tournament calls for," said Deschamps.

The French Football Federation have made what Koscielny said in the letter public.

"The main thing is to get along with each other, all together, players and staff," he wrote.

"Everyone has to fight and go the extra yard for his teammates, team spirit is key."

"The whole nation is behind you and will cheer you on. This support, energy, pride and passion will carry you just as it did in Euro 2016," said Koscielny, who was part of the France side that lost the final to Portugal.

RUSSIANS TO TAKE NO PART IN DRUG TESTING

Russians will not be involved in drug testing procedures at the World Cup as FIFA looks to reassure teams that samples cannot be tampered with, the governing body's medical committee chairman Michel D'Hooghe has told the Times newspaper.

A 2016 report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and compiled by Canadian sports lawyer Richard McLaren found more than 1,000 Russian competitors were involved in a conspiracy to conceal positive tests over a five-year period.

Soccer was among the sports implicated in the probe and the sport's global governing body are taking no chances at the Russia-hosted World Cup.

"My basic condition to lead the anti-doping policy in Russia is that everything would be done from the very beginning to the last point by FIFA without Russian intervention," D'Hooghe told the Times.

"That means the chaperones, who take the players from the field, will be designated by FIFA and will not be Russian."