Cristiano Ronaldo is “doing well” and will be “ready to play” this weekend, despite being caught in the storm of rape allegations, Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said Friday.
Allegri said Ronaldo “is in the squad and ready to play” on Saturday when the winners of the past seven Serie A titles visit Udinese.
🎙 @OfficialAllegri: "I've known @Cristiano for three months now and for over 15 years of his career he has shown to be a great professional both on and off the pitch. He is ready to return to action tomorrow."#UdineseJuve pic.twitter.com/tOJt6Lq7g6
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) October 5, 2018
Juventus on Thursday had said that the rape allegations did not change their opinion about their superstar player, which drew plenty of backlash on social media.
Juventus later also posted a video on YouTube and Twitter showing Ronaldo working up a sweat as he trained with his teammates at the team’s Continassa centre in Turin for Saturday’s league game against Udinese.
Ronaldo was on Thursday left out of Portugal’s squad for upcoming matches after police in Las Vegas reopened an investigation into allegations of rape dating back to 2009.
US sportswear giant Nike said it is “deeply concerned” by the rape allegations, even as shares in Italian champions Juventus fell over five percent on the Italian stock exchange on Friday.
Portuguese star Ronaldo is one of the world’s top athletes and boasts a number of lucrative sponsorship contracts.
More to follow...
