Palmeiras doctor: Paulinho making great progress, no return date yet | OneFootball

The forward Paulinho will not be strengthening Palmeiras right at the start of 2026. The club's medical coordinator, Pedro Pontin, analyzed the forward's recovery, avoided setting a return date, but revealed that at the beginning of next year, the number 10 will still be in an important stage of his treatment for the surgery on the tibia of his right leg.

“Paulinho is approximately four and a half months post-operative from a revision of a stress fracture in the tibia. This is a short period for his recovery process. We already knew from then on, when we entered this new procedure, that it would be a longer recovery period,” declared the medical coordinator in an interview with TV Palmeiras.

Paulinho follows schedule during vacation

While most of the squad is released for vacation, Paulinho, Felipe Anderson, Figueiredo, and Lucas Evangelista continue their respective treatments with the professionals from the Health and Performance Center. They will follow the schedule until the 23rd, at the Football Academy, and then will rejoin the squad on January 4th.

“Fortunately, there is an excellent evolution. The athlete is already in a phase of recovery with physiotherapy, already doing strengthening exercises. However, at the start of the season, we will still be within an interval that we still consider a healing period, which will still require some attention regarding some characteristics that this evolution needs to have. So, the first of them is the full healing of the bone, which is progressing towards that,” he continued.

“Then reaching his full physical form so that we can then do the physical transition process. Paulinho is an athlete we are very optimistic about his return, in good condition, but we know we need to have the necessary caution following the plan,” concluded Pedro Pontin.

Paulinho's injury

When he still belonged to Atlético-MG, Paulinho needed surgery to correct a stress injury in the tibia of his right leg and arrived at Palmeiras recovering from the procedure. As the club's second most expensive signing, the player missed the entire Campeonato Paulista, the start of the Brasileirão, and the first phase of the Libertadores.

Paulinho only debuted for Verdão in April. The expectation was that Paulinho would be 100% for the World Cup, which took place between June and July this year, in the United States. However, the athlete needed to follow an individual schedule to control the load and had limited time to be on the field.

Even under these conditions, he was important for the team and left the tournament with two goals, one of them securing the team’s spot in the quarter-finals against Botafogo, and one assist. In total, he played 16 matches for the São Paulo team, only one as a starter, scored three goals, and provided two assists.

After the tournament in the United States, Palmeiras' Medical Department opted for a new procedure so that the athlete would not be at risk or further exhausted. Thus, Paulinho underwent the new surgery at the end of July and has been recovering since then.

Therefore, Paulinho is expected to still be absent at the start of the 2026 State Championship.

Next Palmeiras match

Portuguesa vs. Palmeiras Competition: Campeonato Paulista (1st round) Date: January 11, 2026 (Sunday) Location: Canindé Stadium, in São Paulo (SP)

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.