By DAN KARELL
Cristiano Ronaldo’s status for Portugal’s opener against Germany on Monday is up in the air.
The 29-year-old star forward was only able to participate in 15-20 minutes of training with the rest of his team, participating in the physical exercises before taking a seat while the team did on-the-ball work, according to the Associated Press. The report states that Ronaldo stretched on his own, signed some shirts for fans at Portugal’s training center in Campinas, and then sat down for the rest of training.
When he left with the team, he was wearing an ice pack on his left knee, indicating that his tendonitis problems could be still bothering him.
Ronaldo missed Portugal’s first two tune-up friendly matches due to a strained thigh and the left knee tendonitis, only featuring again in Portugal’s 5-1 rout of the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday in New Jersey. Ronaldo played through both of those injuries throughout much of the second half of the regular season for Real Madrid.
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What do you think of this report? Do you see Ronaldo playing in Portugal’s opener? Do you think he’ll be fit to face the USMNT?
Share your thoughts below.
Wow this guy loves the drama. I’ll eat my hat if he doesn’t play nearly every minute of the group stage.
I agree, the greats find a way onto the field.
It reminds me of Kobe Bryant, every time the lakers go into the payoffs his knee is hurting, and he takes practices off, but still plays 40 min a game running hard
Well until the last two years. you can only will yourself so far.
There are braces specifically for knee tendonitus.. they work very well
Yes. They are called knee immobilizers.
He pushes himself too far against Germany (because you know Ronaldo ain’t going to sit out a game against Germany) and than is poor or totally out of the game against USA.
Calling it.
I really do hope he gets well soon. And by “soon” I mean “4 weeks”. Tendinitis doesnt go away without rest, so my professional opinion is he needs to rest it for 4 weeks.
USA v Portugal 1:31
J. Jones Yellow Card.
Foul on C. Ronaldo
Substitution:
C. Ronaldo Out
H. Almeida In
Oh, Jonesy. We know you would if you thought it was a sure thing.
He has done it to Neymar already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGKcBrWchqI
Sweep the knee!
Mexico dominated Portugal. I truly do not believe they’re that good, with him or without him. But without him, they’re lost. If he’s out, we have no excuses if we don’t get at least a point. Even with him, we’ve got a fighting chance.
Portugal is overrated and beatable.
If Portugal is overrated Derek, then the US shouldn’t even be in the top 100 rankings
That’s quite a leap, a team that makes it to every world cup shouldn’t be ranked in the top 100 because Portugal is overrated.
USA is not good and very beatable
Don’t believe for one minute that playing against Portugal will be cakewalk even without Ronaldo. Hugo Almeida is a great player, and he knows how to score goals.
Not a cakewalk but more probable than with Ronaldo
not surprising. this isn’t the type of injury that just goes away. he needs to rest for an extended period of time.
The Voodoo Doll is working.
LoL! I actually want him out there so when we beat them there’s no excuses like oh Ronaldo wasn’t playing and blah blah blah! Go USA!!!!
I wonder if Portugal might just hold him out against Germany and look to have there best chance at getting 6 points off the US and Ghana.
It is really dangerous to sport a group member 3 points and to say you will take 0 points from a games. Can’t imagine they will do that. If he does not play it will be because he is hurt.