Ronaldo will miss both legs of World Cup play-off clash

Published on Tuesday 10 November 2009 21:22

CRISTIANO Ronaldo will miss both legs of Portugal's World Cup play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina after the team's doctors ruled that his ankle is still injured.

The Portuguese Football Federation said in a statement that the doctors checked Ronaldo's fitness after he flew into Lisbon yesterday and agreed with Real Madrid's diagnosis that the winger was unfit.

Ronaldo did not speak to the media.

Portugal plays Bosnia-Herzegovina in Lisbon on Saturday and then at Zenica on 18 November with a place in next year's tournament in South Africa on the line.

Madrid, which paid a world-record 94 million to Manchester United for the player in the summer, had initially balked at allowing Ronaldo to travel as he hasn't played in a month.

However, Fifa rules say national football federations must be permitted to carry out their own fitness tests, and the Spanish club relented.

Ronaldo was hurt during Madrid's Champions League match with Marseille on 30 September. He then aggravated the injury while playing for Portugal in a World Cup qualifier against Hungary on 10 October and hasn't played since.

Earlier, Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz played down talk of a row with Madrid. "I want to put a full stop to this soap opera that has been created without any basis. The parties are fulfilling their obligations and that's what's important," said Queiroz. "I don't understand the hysteria in some sectors, about a situation that is normal."

Meanwhile, club president Florentino Perez has played down Real Madrid's trophy expectations this season, saying the club are looking long term.

"Our dream is to build a spectacular team but it would not be a failure if we didn't win a title," Perez told Spanish television.

"We are at the start of a new project. We are giving it stability. We aren't going to get nervous because it hasn't all come together perfectly in the first year."

Perez's return in June for a second spell as president set in motion a 250 million reconstruction programme that brought in players like Ronaldo, Kaka and Karim Benzema.

Expectations have soared in the local media, fired by the possibility of Real making the Champions League final at the Bernabeu in May and of winning a possible tenth European Cup in front of their own fans.

&#149 Former Czech Republic international Vladimir Smicer will work alongside national team head coach Michal Bilek as manager having ended his playing career, the Czech FA said in a statement yesterday.

Smicer, 36, a member of the squad that finished runners-up to Germany at the 1996 European Championship in England and who won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005, scored 27 goals in 81 internationals for the Czech Republic.

The Slavia Prague midfielder, who retired on Monday after struggling with injuries, will handle the business side of the team but work closely with Bilek, who took the top job last month after the Czechs failed to reach next year's World Cup.