Manchester United are said to have set a deadline for veteran Cristiano Ronaldo to get into the Red Devils’ tour for the pre-season.
There has been great speculation in recent weeks over the star’s future at Old Trafford. He has voiced his desire not to stay at United this season. Moreover, his agent Jorge Mendes has been asked to search for new clubs this summer. Still, the Red Devils were confident of keeping Ronaldo for this season.
Additionally, Erik Ten Hag has also repeatedly said that Ronaldo is part of his plans for this summer. Moreover, the rehaul project by Ten Hag has been chalked out keeping Ronaldo. The 37-year-old was not able to return to the training for the pre-season the previous week to Carrington citing personal reasons.
In addition to getting the green signal to skip a few days of the training, Ronaldo was even allowed to tweak the initial part of United’s pre-season tour.
The Red Devils start their pre-season tour with a friendly match against arch-rivals, Liverpool, in Bangkok on the evening of Tuesday.
Will Cristiano Ronaldo be ruled out of the pre-season tour completely?
The Daily Mail reports that the English powerhouses will bar the five-time Ballon D’or champion out of the tour completely if he is found to be not available by the latter half of this week.
Therefore, Ronaldo being available in the market has attracted interest from elite clubs across Europe.
The leading team that has looked most formidable to sign the legend is Chelsea. Chelsea has lost one striker in Romelu Lukaku who made a return to Inter Milan on loan. Therefore, they are in search of a star striker. It is thought that Ronaldo can fill in the shoes left void by Lukaku.
United are set to go to Australia after facing Liverpool. Therefore, they see it futile for Ronaldo to travel if he cannot be ready within the coming week.
After the club’s campaign in Thailand, the 20-time Premier League Champions will travel to Melbourne. There they will face Melbourne Victory and Crystal Palace.
Moreover, after playing these teams they would meet Aston Villa in Perth.
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