After being substituted twice in consecutive games for Juventus and seemingly falling out with Maurizio Sarri before the international break, superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has now broken his silence on the matter.
Despite Sarri’s claims that the Portuguese forward was struggling with an injury in the Bianconeri’s past two matches, Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in his country’s 6-0 win over Lithuania last week and another in their 2-0 victory over Luxembourg this past Sunday.
The former Real Madrid forward caused a stir last week when he reacted angrily to being taken off by his manager on two different occasions. Against Lokomotiv Moscow in the UEFA Champions League, he seemed to exchange heated words with the Italian tactician, while he headed straight down the tunnel when he was substituted against AC Milan, and even reportedly left the stadium early.
However, Ronaldo’s form for Portugal, especially in their first 2020 European Championship qualifier of the international break, appeared to suggest he was at his physical best, but after his single strike on Sunday, he admitted he has been carrying a knock, and that Sarri was simply trying to protect him.
“It is true that I have been limited in the past few weeks,” he said, according to Calciomercato.
“I tried to help Juve by playing injured. I don’t like to be subbed off, but there aren’t any issues.
“I wasn’t 100% so it’s normal that Sarri wanted to protect me.”
Ronaldo has now scored 99 goals for his country and is just 10 strikes away from equalling the all-time international record of 109 goals held by Iran’s Ali Daei.
In other news – Senzo Meyiwa and his father fight for justice from their graves, more trouble for Kelly Khumalo
Five years after Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa was gunned down at his girlfriend singer Kelly Khumalo’s family home in Vosloorus, his family has yet to find closure. The conversation around #SenzoMeyiwa trended almost the entire week after The Sunday Independent’s exposé last week, which revealed that there had been a cover-up and that answers lay with the witnesses who were inside the house when Meyiwa was shot dead.
These include Kelly, her sister Zandi and Zandi’s then-boyfriend Longwe Twala. Feeling pressure from the renewed spotlight on this unsolved case, the Khumalo sisters have sought to clear their names. They maintained their original version that this was a robbery gone wrong, and that the killer was not known to them. continue reading
Source: soccer laduma
