Richarlison and Vinicius Jr SEPARATED by Neymar and Brazil team-mates

Brazil stars Richarlison and Vinicius Jr had to be separated during a heating training ground exchange.

Saturday's altercation almost led to a punch up between the pair as Brazil prepared for their friendly against Japan on Monday.

What caused the skirmish remains unclear but the stormy affair led to the Everton man grabbing hold of Vinicius by his training shirt.

Team-mates including Selecao captain Neymar and Newcastle target Lucas Paqueta, quickly emerged to separate the pair before it boiled over.

But that seemed to infuriate Richarlison further as Neymar placed his hands around the neck of the Goodison Park favourite.

Eventually, the players were led away from each other and both went their separate ways.

Richarlison has become embroiled in his fair share of controversy this season including a public spat with Sky Sports co-commentator and pundit Jamie Carragher last month following Everton's successful Premier League survival bid.

The 25-year-old took to Twitter to throw shade at Carragher saying: "Wash your mouth before you talk about me and Everton and I don’t respect you."

The comments were in relation to Carragher claiming the Brazilian goes to ground far too easily after a number of incidents in the recent Merseyside derby.

The training-ground fracas will have come as a blemish on a joyous week for Vinicius who scored the winning goal in the Champions League final.

The 21-year-old nipped in at the back post to score the only goal of the game in Paris, to give Real their 14th success in the competition.

He joined Real Madrid in 2018 from Brazilian club Flamengo for a reported £38 million and despite a stuttering start to life in the Spanish capital, found his feet, culminating in last week's Champions League final heroics.

Brazil face Japan on Monday in Tokyo hoping to continue their good form following Thursday's 5-1 thrashing of South Korea.