Manchester United's Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo applauds during a warm up prior to the start of the English Premier League football match between Leeds United and Manchester United at Elland Road in Leeds, northern England on February 20, 2022. - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Manchester United started with a false nine in the Manchester derby due to Cristiano Ronaldo’s unavailability. The Portugal star was ruled out with a hip injury and instead of staying in Manchester for the derby, he flew back to his homeland for a couple of days.
According to The Telegraph, Ronaldo has not trained since the 4-1 defeat on Sunday, but he was at Carrington on Tuesday when a decision was made that he would not rejoin the group just yet.
After missing several training sessions with the first team, Ronaldo is set to be a doubt for Saturday’s big game against Tottenham Hotspur, and we can’t afford another disaster like last weekend. Otherwise we will be out of the race for top four.
The report does not clear whether Ronaldo will train today but we would’ve heard something by now had he returned to group sessions.
The next update we can expect is when Ralf Rangnick holds his press conference on Friday.
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United have already beaten Spurs 3-0 this season when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer deployed both Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani up front, however, it could be the case that neither will be fit enough to play Antonio Conte’s side.
It will be intriguing to see who will form our front three after the shocking display against City.
