Neymar Jr posts offensive tribute that appears to mock Stephen Hawking's disability, gets slammed on social media

Brazilian striker Neymar Jr been trolled online for his insensitive tribute to late Stephen Hawking, who died yesterday at the age of 76. Neymar shared a picture on Instagram, featuring him in a bathing suit and sitting on a wheelchair.

He faced major backlash on Twitter for the ill-advised tribute.

The world's most expensive player broke a bone in his right foot on February 25 and faces weeks of recuperation following surgery in early March.

Unconfirmed media reports are swirling in Europe that Neymar has also grown disenchanted with PSG, who crashed out of the Champions League as the forward missed the second leg on March 6, and wants to return to Barcelona or even join rivals Real Madrid.

Brazil's national team is hoping the striker will be back to full fitness in time to help lead the campaign at the World Cup starting in Russia on June 14. A

Você tem que ter uma atitude positiva e tirar o melhor da situação na qual se encontra.

Stephen Hawking pic.twitter.com/JE2MtyuT6b

— Neymar Jr (@neymarjr) March 14, 2018

Neymar there, with his sore metatarsal and sprained ankle, marking Stephen Hawking's death by cheerily comparing himself to quadriplegic Stephen Hawking pic.twitter.com/f9bkh5AEhb

— Nooruddean (@BeardedGenius) March 14, 2018

Great to see Neymar drawing inspiration from Stephen Hawking as he adjusts to living his life with a sore ankle for a few weeks. https://t.co/VogGFNBI7j

— Si Lloyd (@SmnLlyd5) March 14, 2018

As if Neymar has gone back through his Icloud to find a picture of him injured in a wheelchair so he can send his wishes to Stephen Hawking hahahahaha https://t.co/4GA7ppsJhb

— JWC (@TheJackyCalv) March 14, 2018

RIP Hawking and all but isn't it funny that Neymar is actually more disabled? https://t.co/HAIIPJSxF7

— - (@RashadJunior) March 14, 2018

In which #Brazil soccer idol Neymar appears to equate Stephen Hawking's disability with his own broken pinky toe. #StephenHawking https://t.co/PIoaGzeV9X

— David Biller (@DLBiller) March 14, 2018

Neymar usually seems to get social media. This is not one of those times. https://t.co/A0YnRjmtaR

— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) March 14, 2018

Aight bro was the wheelchair REALLY necessary for this one tho https://t.co/htodugXzC0

— Andy (@_fernando_lo) March 15, 2018

Before I translated this I just saw the name and the photo and I made an audible ‘surely not’ https://t.co/2MORPPUldx

— nipplesursh (@saoirsebehzadix) March 15, 2018

Im glad you left Barca https://t.co/XfbpDxzAWE

— Mexican GBE Leader (@vuhsace) March 14, 2018

Ravaged by the wasting motor neurone disease he developed at 21, Hawking was confined to a wheelchair for most of his life.

As his condition worsened, he had to speak through a voice synthesiser and communicating by moving his eyebrows - but at the same time became the world's most recognisable scientist.

Hawking died peacefully at his home in the British university city of Cambridge in the early hours of Wednesday.

"He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years," his children Lucy, Robert and Tim said. "His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world."

Hawking shot to international fame after the 1988 publication of "?A Brief History of Time", one of the most complex books ever to achieve mass appeal, which stayed on the Sunday Times best-sellers list for no fewer than 237 weeks.? "My original aim was to write a book that would sell on airport bookstalls," he told reporters at the time. "?In order to make sure it was understandable I tried the book out on my nurses. I think they understood most of it."

The physicist's disease spurred him to work harder but also contributed to the collapse of his two marriages, he wrote in a 2013 memoir "My Brief History".

In the book he related how he was first diagnosed: "I felt it was very unfair - why should this happen to me," he wrote.

"At the time, I thought my life was over and that I would never realise the potential I felt I had. But now, 50 years later, I can be quietly satisfied with my life."