Bastos returns to playing time at Botafogo after serious injury.

Recovered from a knee injury, the defender regains importance for Glorioso.

Defender Bastos returned to playing time for Botafogo after nearly a year sidelined with a left knee injury. In the 1-1 draw against Barcelona de Guayaquil, in the first leg of the third qualifying round for the Copa Libertadores, he was the key player in the defensive system.

In the match, the defender led the team in defensive actions. He wasn’t dribbled past, won seven out of nine duels, made five clearances, executed three tackles, and completed 90% of his passes.

Bastos was sidelined from official matches for almost a season due to a trauma to his left knee, suffered against Nova Iguaçu in the 2025 Campeonato Carioca. In March, he returned to the field in a friendly against Novorizontino, but reported renewed discomfort the following month.

A member of the delegation at the Club World Cup, he experienced the problem again in the United States. In July of last year, he underwent surgery. The club reported at the time that it was a “complex chronic injury to his left knee.”

After his return against Fluminense, the player began to have his workload controlled and was spared from some of the activities at Espaço Lonier. Currently, he has five consecutive starts, not counting games with an alternative team in the Carioca Championship. In almost all of them, he played the full 90 minutes.

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