Ronaldo doubt for Madrid’s Champions League game

Real Madrid winger leaves training session with knee injury.

Cristiano Ronaldo has been Real Madrid's most prolific scorer in recent times. Bernd Thissen / EPA
Powered by automated translation

Cristiano Ronaldo is doubtful for Real Madrid’s Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second-leg against Borussia Dortmund after breaking off Monday’s final training session with a knee injury.

Ronaldo completed just 20 minutes of Madrid’s final training session on the eve of Tuesday’s match at Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion having sat out Madrid’s 4-0 win at Real Sociedad on Saturday to recover from the problem.

The 29-year-old suffered the knee injury after scoring Madrid's final goal in their 3-0 win over Dortmund at Madrid's Bernabeu Stadium last Wednesday and sought treatment in Dortmund immediately after breaking off training.

Carlo Ancelotti, Madrid’s Italian manager, has said he will delay making a decision on Ronaldo and will not risk the world player of the year.

“Cristiano always wants to play and I want him to play, but he is a professional and knows when he can’t,” said Ancelotti before overseeing the final training session.

“We have to wait until after training, but we’ll take our time with the final decision and we don’t want to take any risks.”

Portugal star Ronaldo is Madrid’s top-scorer this season having hit the net 45 times in all competitions.

Meanwhile, Dortmund’s players are set to pocket a sizeable sum if they win the quarter-final, it has been reported.

According to the Bild newspaper, each player will receive €100,000 (nearly Dh505,000) should Dortmund book their place in the semi-finals of the Champions League for the second season running.

No bonus will be due if they win, but not by a margin which will see them through.

Without confirming the figures, which would cost the Westphalian club over €2 million, general manager Hans-Joachim Watzke stated that it would be in the players’ best interests to go one better than the 4-1 win over Madrid in the semi-finals last year.

“The team know that going through would not do them any harm,” he is quoted as saying.

Dortmund have Robert Lewandowski, who scored all four goals against Real a year ago, back after he missed the first leg through suspension.

“You would have to be mad to say we can turn things around, but we do have a small chance,” he said at a press conference on Monday.

sports@thenational.ae

Follow our sports coverage on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE