Picture Credit: Twitter
Portugal legend Cristiano Ronaldo has missed Manchester United's pre-season tour to Thailand and Australia citing family issues and his national and club teammate Bruno Fernandes has recently asked the football world to give the legendary forward some space.
After Cristiano and his partner Georgina Rodriguez have announced the death of one of their twins, the Portugal international has been given a break from the pre season tours by Manchester United.
Speaking on the matter, the 27-year-old Fernandes said, "I don’t know what Cristiano said to the club or to the manager. I don’t know what he’s going into his head, but we have to respect his space. From everything we know, he had some family problems, so we have to give him some space and that’s it."
The 37-year-old Cristiano, who was United's top scorer last season, has earlier expressed his views on leaving the club in summer after the Red Devils failed to qualify for the Champions League.
Addressing the matter, Fernandes said, "I don’t know. Cristiano was our top scorer last season, he added goals to us, but it’s the club that has to make the choices and Cristiano makes his own choice. I don’t know what’s going on in his head, if he wants to leave. I didn’t ask him that."
"The only thing I asked Cristiano, when he didn’t turn up, was if everything was okay with the family. He told me what was going on, that’s it. Nothing more," Bruno added.
The Manchester United midfielder further praised their new coach Erik ten Hag and said, "I think we missed that [discipline] for a while. Discipline is important. Discipline is not only the way you play on the pitch, the position that you have, what you have to do, it’s also off the pitch."
"Don’t be late for meetings, don’t be late for meals, I think that’s really important because if everyone is on time and someone comes late, he should be punished and I think that’s really good that he [Ten Hag] is doing that. I like to be on time, so I won’t have any problem with that," he added.