Lisbon (AFP)

Neymar, Mbappé, Ibrahimovic ... and now "CR7".

Cristiano Ronaldo is the last star footballer to test positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, leaving Portugal and his club Juventus Turin with a crippling void in attack.

The 35-year-old Portuguese "tested positive for Covid-19 and will not play against Sweden" on Wednesday as part of the League of Nations, the Portuguese Football Federation announced.

"CR7" is "asymptomatic" and is "in quarantine", said the federation.

Tuesday morning's training session in Oeiras on the outskirts of Lisbon had been postponed without explanation, and coach Fernando Santos is due to give a press conference at 18:00 GMT (20:00 French).

For the Portuguese, tied on points with France in Group 3 of the League of Nations, this absence is likely to weigh on Wednesday against Sweden.

In the first leg in Solna (2-0), the striker scored the two victory goals, exceeding the symbolic bar of 100 international goals.

Especially since the Portuguese selection begins to look like a "cluster" (or source of contamination): Ronaldo is indeed the third player to catch the coronavirus in this two-week international window, after defender José Fonte (Lille) and goalkeeper Anthony Lopes (Lyon).

The other Seleçao players, tested Tuesday morning, "are all negative," said the federation.

Just like those of the France team, who faced the Portuguese two days earlier (0-0) and arrived in Croatia on Tuesday, according to the French Federation.

- Juventus in embarrassment -

But it is especially for Juventus Turin, where Cristiano Ronaldo has already scored three goals and delivered an assist in ... two Championship days, that this positive test is a blow.

According to the health protocol in force in Italy, the five-time Ballon d'Or must indeed remain in isolation for ten days and then provide a negative test to be able to start playing again.

He will therefore miss with certainty the next Serie A match in Crotone, but especially the entry into contention of the "Vecchia Signora" in the Champions League, against Dynamo Kiev (Tuesday 20).

Subject to a good state of health, he could therefore return for the reception of Hellas Verona, Sunday, October 25, and would especially be available for the reception, on October 28 in C1, of FC Barcelona from his rival Lionel Messi.

This bad news also gives another tone to his departure at the beginning of last week for the gathering of the Portuguese team, in violation of the Serie A health protocol.

Ronaldo had left, like other international Juve, the hotel where the Bianconeri players were in isolation after two cases of Covid-19 detected within the club, without waiting for the green light from his management.

Juve reported this breach of protocol to justice.

The striker's mother, Dolores Aveiro, has publicly supported him.

"God gives great battles to great warriors. It's one more war that you will overcome, my son," she wrote on her Instagram account.

© 2020 AFP