adminFollowing captain Iker Casillas’s message of calm after the team dropped 16 points behind rivals Barcelona in the league, yesterday it was the Portuguese goalscorer’s turn to keep up appearances.
“It is difficult when a top team like Real Madrid that is used to winning finds itself not at its best level. It is normal that people get a bit more tense,” Ronaldo told a news conference.
“We have to admit that we are having a bad moment but I am sure this will be a good year. We are training well and so good things are sure to come.”
Weeks of rumours about splits in the club peaked on December 23 when coach Jose Mourinho dropped Casillas from the starting line-up away to Malaga — a game Real lost 3-2.
Mourinho insists that decision was taken on technical grounds alone and Ronaldo backed the Portuguese coach yesterday.
“The coach is the one who decides. We all have to respect his decisions,” he said.
Casillas was hoping to regain his place for Sunday’s match against Real Sociedad.
Ronaldo declined to comment on his own long-term plans with Real Madrid, which has not yet indicated whether it will renew his current contract beyond 2015.
“That is not the most important thing right now,” said Ronaldo, who is the third-highest scorer in the league this season with 14 goals.
“More important than that is to find the right way to keep winning.”
Meanwhile, Real Madrid defender Pepe had surgery on his right ankle at a clinic in Portugal yesterday, the club said, without giving a timeframe for his recovery.
“Pepe, after showing discomfort in his right ankle and after a medical check, was operated on this morning in Oporto . . . at the Espregueira Mendes Clinic. The player had an arthroscopy of the ankle,” Real Madrid said in a statement online.
Spanish sports daily Marca said Pepe would be sidelined for about a month but he was already set to miss the game against Real Sociedad in the Bernabeu stadium this Sunday because of suspension. The Portuguese international had been suffering from pain in his ankle since mid-December, it said.
An arthroscopy involves making a small incision and inserting a thin tube-like instrument — an athroscope — to inspect and if necessary repair problems such as torn cartilage.
And Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova visited team players at their training ground yesterday, less than two weeks after he had cancer surgery, the club said.
The visit raised hopes that Vilanova (44) may soon return to work with the team, which is flying nine points clear at the top of the Spanish league.
“He came to the Ciudad Deportiva and greeted the players who trained there this morning,” Barcelona said in a statement, referring to the club’s training ground.
Nine members of the Barcelona squad were preparing there for a friendly match between Catalonia and Nigeria last night.
Vilanova faces six weeks of radiotherapy and chemotherapy but the club’s president Sandro Rosell said on Friday the coach could be back at work in less than three weeks.
The coach’s son, Adria, on Tuesday published on Twitter a photograph of himself and his father standing on a paddle tennis court, further fuelling optimism for his recovery.
Adria Vilanova, who plays for one of Barcelona’s junior teams, said he had seen in the New Year “playing paddle with someone special”.
The club also said that first-choice goalkeeper Victor Valdes would miss the Catalonia regional team’s match against Nigeria because of a swelling in the sole of his foot.
“The goalkeeper did not train this morning in the session of the players called up to play for Catalonia due to a plantar fasciitis in his left foot,” the club statement said. — AFP.
Online Reporter