According to ManUnited coach Ralf Rangnick, Cristiano Ronaldo was absent on Sunday during the clear derby defeat at city rivals ManCity (1:4) with a hip flexor injury. In the end, however, the Portuguese was not even live in the stadium. Not an unknown story for his former club Juventus.
Cristiano Ronaldo has missed the prestigious Manchester derby through injury. Talk of CR7 allegedly suffering from a ligament “doesn’t make any sense to me”, Red Devils icon Roy Keane said plainly afterwards. The Athletic”, among others, also reported that the star had flown to his Portuguese homeland before the duel, which is said to have caused astonishment in the team.
And so Cristiano Ronaldo, who has only scored a meagre three goals under Rangnick and is only on nine goals by his own standards in 23 Premier League appearances since his return to ManUnited, was not even seen in the stadium. In short, the 37-year-old did not get up close and personal with his colleagues in the significant defeat.
Between 2018 and 2021, when the striker played for Juventus, something like this had also happened in modified forms …
Truffle hunting instead of Lecce
In October 2019, for example, Cristiano Ronaldo had been given a break by then Juve coach Maurizio Sarri before the guest game at US Lecce. However, instead of joining him on the bench just in case (the match ended 1-1), the attacking artist went in search of expensive truffles in Piedmont, more specifically in the countryside near the town of Alba, with friends and family. Photos of this trip into the woods had ended up on social media at the time.
Just two weeks later, CR7 was then substituted by coach Sarri in the 55th minute of the clash with Milan. Paulo Dybala came on instead and even scored the winning goal. Cristiano Ronaldo was not happy about his substitution, left the Allianz Stadium and did not watch the rest of the game from the bench.
There had also been discussions about his departure for home in March 2020, claiming that he did not take the Covid 19 protocols seriously enough. However, at the time, it was a release from Juventus because his mother had fallen ill.
Now it was the veteran’s next absence, which, according to English media reports, had not gone down well with the team. Rangnick’s explanation, however, only referred to the injury: “Our doctor came to me on Friday morning before training and said that Cristiano could not train because of problems with his hip flexor. And not on Saturday either.” According to the tabloid “The Sun”, however, CR7 is also said to have signed off injured because of this and flew to his native Portugal after being told by coach Rangnick (63) that he would not be in the starting eleven against City and would only come off the bench.
