Flamengo's physical trainer minimizes series of injuries at the club and highlights: "It's a phenomenon all over the world"

Brazil ended its participation in the Paris Paralympics this Sunday (8) with its best campaign in the history of the competition. According to the objective established by the Brazilian Paralympic Committee, the Brazilian delegation in Paris broke the record for medals in a single edition of the Games, with 89, achieved the highest number of golds, 25, and secured the unprecedented top 5 in the medals table.

It was not easy to secure fifth place. After spending the first few days among the five best countries at the Paralympics, Brazil came to occupy eighth place in the medals quarter at the end of Thursday (5), four days before the end of the Games. But from Friday (6) recovery came. With four gold medals won, Brazil reached seventh place and came up against France and Italy, which would become the great opponent for fifth place.

Medal after medal, Brazil and Italy fought for the top 5 in the table of medals. On Saturday (7), Brazilian athletes secured the country's best day in the history of the Paralympics with six golds, three silvers and seven bronzes, and sixth place in the classification. With such a performance, Brazil surpassed the 72 podiums and 22 gold medals from Tokyo 2022, achieving its best campaign in both categories.

However, it still lacked a position in the top five. The Italians had 24 gold medals, one more gold medal than Brazil, and slept in fifth place. That would change this Sunday morning (8).

In the first events of the last day of the race, Brazil won two more gold medals and overtook Italy. First, Fernando Rufino was champion in canoeing, winning gold in the 200m VL2 and leaving the countries tied. The race also had another Brazilian on the podium. Igor Tofalini finished in second place and took silver. Then, in the event that would bring the top 5 to Brazil, Tayana Medeiros broke the Paralympic record by lifting 156kg in the 86kg category and took gold.

Italy did not win any competition and no longer competes in competitions. Thus, Brazil guaranteed its best campaign in the history of the Paralympics. The great Brazilian highlights, as usual, were athletics, which reached its 200th medals won, and swimming, with 36 for the first and 26 for the second discipline.

The Brazilian team welcomed defender Fabrício Bruno this Sunday, but even so, coach Dorival Júnior did not have the complete group for training in Curitiba. Physically worn out, left-back Guilherme Arana, midfielders André and Lucas Paquetá and striker Vini Júnior were absent from the activity held at Athletico-PR's Caju training center.

According to the CBF, the quartet was only out of training due to load control and has no injuries. This way, Dorival will only have training this Monday to prepare the squad to face Paraguay. The duel valid for the eighth round of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers will take place on Tuesday, at 9:30 pm (Brasília time), at the Defensores del Chaco stadium, in Asunción.

Summoned up to replace Éder Militão, cut , Fabrício Bruno arrived in Curitiba this Sunday morning and, in the afternoon, he went to the field with his teammates. The press was only able to follow the first 15 minutes of the activity.

This Monday, Brazil plays the last work before the match against Paraguay. Then, embark for Asunción. After beating Ecuador 1-0 last Friday, the Seleção occupies fourth place in the Qualifiers, with 10 points, eight less than leaders Argentina.

The Flamengo suffered another setback in the Brazilian Championship. Last Sunday (1), Mais Querido was defeated by Corinthians 2-1 in Itaquera. With this, it was expected that coach Tite would explain the result in São Paulo and the red-black team's low-competitive stance. However, with the presence of physical trainer Fábio Mahseredjian, the focus of the questions turned to the numerous injured players on the Rio team.

The situation was seen by the journalist Mauro Cezar Pereira as precisely an attempt to take the spotlight over the poor performance and focus only on the players who are out after a heavy sequence of games in August. On Uol's Posse de Bola program, Mauro Cezar classified the red-and-black press office as “astute” for managing to change the focus.

“Congratulations to Flamengo's press office, which was very astute . He took Fábio Mahseredjian to talk about a subject he needed for a long time at a press conference about injuries and the physical part and he made it clear that they will continue to happen, that was my understanding of what he said, precisely on the day that Flamengo made a inexcusable match”, said the journalist.

In Mauro Cezar's view, coach Tite had to give explanations about the team's stance after the defeat with performance below expectations, he criticized the coach's choices during the match and the team's attitude on the field.

“The questions focused on the coach, and little on Flamengo's ridiculous performance that Tite had to explain and didn't explain, he kept talking about the calendar and other matters. He was wasting time when he had to explain this team behavior. But the team, even having opted for a more offensive stance in the second half, didn't attack, didn't create anything. After conceding a goal, Flamengo didn't pose any danger”, he concluded.

Mais Querido's next match will only be on September 12th, a Thursday, against Bahia, in the return game of the quarter-finals of the Copa do Brasil, at Maracanã. Flamengo won the first match 1-0 at Casa de Apostas Arena Fonte Nova and has the advantage for the duel.