Turin (Italy) (AFP) – Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo has been left out of Juventus’ team for Wednesday’s Champions League clash against Barcelona in Turin, two weeks after testing positive for coronavirus.
The 35-year-old, the top scorer in the history of the competition with 130 goals, needed to test negative 24 hours before the game against his great rival Lionel Messi’s Spanish team.
A furious Ronaldo posted a photo on Instagram, with the comment: “Feeling good and healthy! Forza Juve! #finoallafine.”
He added a comment on the swab tests used to detect the virus: “PCR IS BULLSHIT”.
Ronaldo, who has more than 241 million Instagram followers, later removed that comment.
Ronaldo first tested positive for Covid-19 two weeks ago while playing with Portugal, and has been in self-isolation since returning to Italy.
According to Portuguese TV1, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has tested positive 18 times.
The match against Barcelona, which kicks off at 2000 GMT, will be the fourth missed by Ronaldo, who has no symptoms of the virus, and has posted photos of himself training on social media.
Footballing legends Ronaldo and Messi will now, all being well, meet in the reverse Group G fixture in Barcelona on December 8.
They have not faced off since the Portuguese superstar left Real Madrid for Juventus in 2018.
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