Ronaldo still wants to play against Sweden, says Santos

The Portugal boss confirmed Cristiano Ronaldo is doing well and still wants to play against Sweden despite testing positive for coronavirus.

The football world was left in shock on Tuesday as the Portuguese Football Federation announced Ronaldo tested positive during the team’s latest round of tests for coronavirus and had entered isolation.

He is understood to be doing well and has shown no symptoms of the disease.

As per the health protocols, Cristiano will now be in self-isolation until October 23 at the earliest. It means he cannot take part in Portugal’s Nations League match against Sweden on Wednesday night, or Juventus’ next two games with Crotone and Dynamo Kyiv.

Although there are doubts on whether he’ll be match-fit for the Bianconeri’s clashes with Hellas Verona on October 25 and Barcelona three days later.

📸 | Cristiano Ronaldo in his isolation watching his teammates train. pic.twitter.com/x3TwmlGvmj

— Cristiano Ronaldo (@c_ronaldo7egend) October 14, 2020

Nevertheless, Fernando Santos had at least some positive news to share on Ronaldo’s condition.

“I’m told he [Ronaldo] is doing well,” said the Portugal boss in his pre-match conference on Tuesday evening.

“Obviously from the time he did the re-test this morning, and it was confirmed – he went into isolation last night after he did the test, just like all the players.

“Yesterday after taking the test the players went into their rooms. Then overnight we got the news.

“Tomorrow [Wednesday] Cristiano and the other players will be tested again. Obviously, Cristiano has been isolated from the others from the start and will remain isolated.

“He’s in his room. He says he wants to play. He talks to us from his balcony.

“And anyway, he is completely asymptomatic.

“He feels fine, without any symptoms at all. He doesn’t even know what happened to him.”