Manchester United will be without Cristiano Ronaldo when they fly out to Bangkok on Friday after the Portuguese superstar was given more time off due to family reasons.
The club are still in dark about Ronaldo whether he will join the team in Thailand at a later date amid increased uncertainty over his future at Old Trafford.
On a personal note, Ronaldo fears his hopes of leaving United are fading after the club doubled down on their assertion that he is up for sale on Thursday.
A spokesperson at the club has now confirmed: ‘Cristiano Ronaldo will not be part of the Manchester United party scheduled to depart for our pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia on Friday.
‘He has been granted additional time off to deal with a family issue.
‘Cristiano remains under contract with Manchester United for another season and is not for sale.’
Ronaldo should have been back for pre-season training on Monday but didn’t show up but it was later gathered that the club gave him a compassionate leave for a family-related issue.
Now, he’s not trained under Erik Ten Hag and has missed four days of training but is said to be unhappy over suggestions he has refused to turn up, considering he had the club’s permission to stay in Lisbon with partner Georgina Rodriguez and his children.
However, his continued absence has generated a lot of speculations after he told United he wants to leave and his agent Jorge Mendes has held talks with several clubs.
Nothing concrete yet, but Chelsea and Napoli have indicated their interest in the former Real Madrid forward. Ronaldo is understood to accept it will be difficult to find a Champions League club prepared to match his £500,000-a-week wages just a month before the new season starts, particularly given United’s stance.
Meanwhile, United know the importance of Ronaldo and having let go of many first-team players already, are unwilling to weaken their squad at a time when manager Erik ten Hag wants new players.
Manchester United Transfer Round-Up
United may have captured Tyrell Malacia and reached a verbal agreement with Christian Eriksen, but they are still sweating over their top target Frenkie de Jong as talks with Barcelona has not reached a conclusion yet.
Reports in Spain suggested Chelsea could try to hijack the De Jong deal by offering Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso as part of their proposal, but it is understood that they are keen to complete the signings of Raheem Sterling and Raphinha first of all.
On Ajax’s Lisandro Martinez, since getting ahead of Arsenal in the race to sign the Argentine, not much has been done. It is expected that the Ten Hag’s side will seal the deal in a matter of days.
