Manchester United interim coach Ralph Rangnick has rejected a suggestion that Cristiano Ronaldo’s absence from the squad for Sunday’s 4-1 Premier League defeat to Manchester City was not due to a hamstring injury.
Former United captain Roy Keane has been asked about Ronaldo’s injury during a Sky Sports broadcast of the Manchester derby. It didn’t make me believe it.
Kane made similar comments after the match and Ranknick was asked to respond at his press conference.
“The doctor came to see me on Friday and told me that Cristiano could not train because of a thigh problem and that was how it was on Saturday and that he could not be on the team,” German said.
“It’s just true … if players tell the medical team they can’t play with an injury, they have to accept it.
Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani has been ruled out due to injury sustained by United, but Ranknick has said he deserves to train.
The German coach added, “Eddie has been training for the last three days and he trained well, but after this training he felt he was unfit to play. This is a fact. As a coach, if a player is not ready to play, I can not force him. “
United are out of the top four after their defeat, now one point behind Arsenal, who beat Watford 3-2 on Sunday, but Ranknick said the Londoners still have three games to play and no room for error.
“I did not really expect Arsenal to lose against Watford, so frankly if we want to get a chance to finish fourth at the end of the season, we can not lose any more points,” he said.
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