Cristiano Ronaldo’s sister has fuelled speculation that the Manchester United star is not injured for the derby against Man City on Sunday.
The Portugal international was not spotted with the rest of his teammates at their hotel on Saturday, which gave an indication that he would miss out on the Premier league clash at the Etihad.
Reports on Sunday morning claimed that Ronaldo is absent for the fixture against Man City due to injury.
But a popular Ronaldo fan account on Instagram alleged that the player is fully fit and has been left out by Ralf Rangnick.
The post, which was liked by Ronaldo’s sister, Katia Aveiro, read: ‘Cristiano Ronaldo is not injured and he is not ill. The man is 100 per cent.
‘Good morning to you who, like me, are sad and angry because Rangnick decided to ruin our Sunday by taking CR7 out of the derby against Manchester City simply for tactical reasons, to defend himself more in the game.’
Speaking ahead of the match, former United defender Gary Neville claimed Ronaldo’s absence was not ‘a big loss’ for Rangnick.
‘Manchester United will be playing on the counter attack,’ Neville told Sky Sports. ‘United over the last three or four years, particularly under Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer], were a counter-attack team.
‘They were really comfortable sitting back, punching out through [Marcus] Rashford and others on the break and I think that will be exactly the same today.
‘Actually [with] Ronaldo not being in the team, I can never say it’s a positive, but I actually don’t see it as a big loss as I might do with other games because I think on the counter-attack United need to be dangerous today, and they’re better off with Rashford up front counter-attacking than they would be with Cristiano.’
