Hulk,Oscar and Fernandinho mourn the loss of Neymar

Neymar was stretchered off after fracturing his vertebrae

Brazilian forward Hulk lamented the loss of his team-mate, Neymar as the 22-year old was stretchered off with a fractured vertebrae as a result of Colombian defender Juan Zuniga’s crunching tackle, ruling him out for the rest of the tournament. He said,”It's sad, he took care of himself for this World Cup and was very excited about it," the Zenit St Petersburg attacker said while addressing to the media. “Not to mention he's very important for the Selecao. We have to try and overcome this. Now we have an extra reason to give it all, for Neymar, for the guy he is. If God helps us, we'll be champions so we can dedicate this title to him."

His other teammate, Oscar too drowned his sorrow over Neymar’s predicament indicating that they will now have to make do without their star forward. The Chelsea man said,”We'll miss him, but whoever comes in will have to give its best. We can't be sad, we are in a World Cup semi-final. We played a great match , and whoever comes in, we have to play collectively to try and beat Germany."

Fernandinho also heaped praise on his Brazilian colleague, but brooked no refusal that his side will still fight it out without him, in unison. "Since the beginning, even if Neymar was shining bright, the group was the real 'leading man'," he quoted. "We played as a team, united, battling our way to the end of every match. This won't change now. Brazil's protagonist is the group.", added the Manchester City mid-fielder.

Brazil beat Colombia yesterday 2-1 to set-up a semi-final date with Germany, but however, they’ll be without the services of their prolific striker, Neymar.