Questions about Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo's possibly injured knee won't go away until he takes the pitch versus the U.S. on Sunday, but that hasn't stopped his teammates from doing their best to quash them.
"I’m not a doctor but, from what I see, Ronaldo is fine," teammate Miguel Veloso said Friday, via The Guardian. "He is training, he is jumping and he is shooting. There is not much else to say."
Ronaldo's every move is under intense scrutiny as the game — a virtual must-win for Portugal — approaches. Every band of athletic tape around his knee and every cube in his bag of ice is analyzed.
U.S. coach Jürgen Klinsmann, who managed Germany to a win over Ronaldo's Portugal in 2006, says he fully expects the reigning Ballon d'Or winner to play, and play well.
“Now [Portugal] are going to come into Manaus pretty angry and I don’t know how Ronaldo is going to perform when he is angry. We need to show Portugal how good we are,” Klinsmann said.
Feature photo courtesy of Reuters/Mauro Horita
[via thescore.com]
