After Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, it is Cristiano Ronaldo's turn to test positive for Covid-19.

The star striker of the Portuguese side "will not play against Sweden" Wednesday in the League of Nations, said the Portuguese Football Federation in a statement published on its website.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who is "asymptomatic", participated in the match between Portugal and France (0-0) on Sunday evening.

The 35-year-old is "in quarantine", the federation said.

He leaves Portugal and his club, Juventus Turin, with a crippling gap in attack.

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": Ronaldo is indeed the third player to catch the new coronavirus in this two-week international window, after defender José Fonte (Lille) and goalkeeper Anthony Lopes ( Lyon).

The other negative Seleçao players, the Blues too

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 and arrived in Croatia on Tuesday, according to the French Federation.

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.

Return possible on October 25

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.

"It's one more war that you will win, my son"

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 in the face of the illness.

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

With AFP

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