Juventus manager Andrea Pirlo has confirmed Cristiano Ronaldo suffered an ankle injury in their 1-1 draw against Lazio on Sunday.
The Portugal international picked up a knock in a clash with Lazio midfielder Luis Alberto and had to be replaced by Paulo Dybala in the 76th minute of the match.
Pirlo could not give any information on the severity of the injury but told DAZN: “Ronaldo is a key player not only for us but for all the teams he has played for. Unfortunately he had an ankle problem and was forced to leave the field.”
The Italian side held on to their lead until the second half stoppage time, when Felipe Caicedo scored the goal to earn a point for the home side.
Pirlo was happy with the club’s performance overall, but warned his players that such slip ups could cost them the league title.
“We had a good match, they had never shot us on goal, there were no signs, but we have to take care of every little detail,” the Juve head coach said. “We didn’t manage the ball in the last 10 seconds. We are satisfied with the game, unfortunately not with the result.
“The head comes first of all, today all the boys have given their best, shown that they can play these matches. if you go on to the pitch with a negative attitude, you have bad performances.
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“We were missing the malice to achieve the decisive results. When they do it like they did today, they see the solutions.
“We are always working to improve, we put new ideas into every game. Today [Federico] Chiesa was unable to play, [Giorgio] Chiellini is injured and Alex Sandro and [Matthijs] de Ligt are out, but we can’t use these as excuses.”
