Juventus‘ hopes of having Cristiano Ronaldo available to face his old foes Lionel Messi and Barcelona in the Champions League have been dashed after he returned another positive Covid-19 test.
The 35-year-old has been self-isolating since October 13 after originally testing positive while on international duty with Portugal, forcing him to miss Juventus’ last three matches.
Andrea Pirlo’s side have struggled without their talisman, drawing 1-1 against Crotone and Verona in Serie A either side of a 2-0 win over Dynamo Kiev in their Champions League opener.
Juve had hoped to have Ronaldo available to face Barcelona in Turin, however, he had another positive test 24 hours before kick-off and was subsequently ruled out of the game as per Uefa’s Covid-19 guidelines.
Ronaldo, who has reportedly been asymptomatic throughout, criticised Uefa’s testing protocols on Wednesday afternoon when he posted a picture on social media with the accompanying caption: “Feeling good and healthy! Forza Juve!”
Underneath the post, he added the comment: “PCR is bull____”
Felling good and healthy! ????????
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 28, 2020????
Forza Juve! ???????? #finoallafine pic.twitter.com/PWuBOSXNEH
In August, ahead of the latter stages of the 2019-20 Champions League season, Uefa announced that it had appointed medical diagnostic services provider Synlab to conduct its testing procedures for players, staff and officials as part of its “Return to Play Protocol”.
Although the end of last season’s Champions League and start of this season’s campaign has generally run smoothly, Synlab has faced criticism from certain clubs, including Juventus’ Serie A rivals Inter who were furious after Achraf Hakimi returned a false positive.
The Moroccan wing-back returned a positive test result last week which forced him to miss Inter’s 2-2 draw against Borussia Monchengladbach. However, Hakimi was available to play in the 0-0 stalemate with Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday after his initial positive result had been found to be false.
Ronaldo’s Covid-enforced absence against Barcelona means football fans will be denied the chance to see him and Messi playing against one another for the first time since Ronaldo left Real Madrid to join Juventus in 2018.
Barcelona were beaten 3-1 by Ronaldo’s former club Real at the weekend with Messi failing to score or provide an assist for the sixth Clasico in a row since Ronaldo’s departure.
The pair could still be reunited in the second group match between the clubs which is scheduled to take place at Camp Nou on Tuesday 8 December.
Juventus’ next game after Barcelona is against Spezia in Serie A on Sunday.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3e5k7bB
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