Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly a major doubt for Manchester United‘s match against Crystal Palace on Sunday due to a knee injury. Therefore, he may be a glaring absentee in Ralf Rangnick’s debut as new manager of Manchester United.
The 36-year-old Portuguese scored twice on Thursday evening – including the winner from the penalty spot – as United beat Arsenal 3-2 at Old Trafford in Michael Carrick’s final game in charge as caretaker boss.
But The Sun claim Ronaldo may have injured his knee doing his trademark ‘siu’ celebration after smashing the penalty high into the net past Aaron Ramsdale with twenty minutes remaining.
The Portugal international demonstrated no immediate ill-effects, running the length of the pitch in 12 seconds to support a late counter attack in the 87th minute.
However, he was substituted for Anthony Martial with two minutes of the 90 remaining, and was seen walking awkwardly off the pitch.
If he is ruled out, it will come as a big blow to interim boss Ralf Rangnick, who is set to take charge of his first game against Patrick Vieira’s men on Sunday afternoon.
Rangnick was at Old Trafford on Thursday night to see Cristiano Ronaldo score twice in a 3-2 win over Arsenal, and insisted that it will not be a problem adapting the Portugal star into his fabled gegenpressing approach.
‘You always have to adapt your style or idea of football to the players you have available, not vice versa,’ he said.
‘Having seen Cristiano yesterday, at his age I’ve never seen a player who is still that physically fit. He’s still a player who can easily make the difference.