Revealed: The reason Cristiano Ronaldo was dropped by Portugal

Cristiano Ronaldo may have been the hero for Portugal during their World Cup qualifier against Andorra, but it seems that his manager feels he was right to keep the player on the bench for the start of the game.

Fernando Santos defended his decision and made it clear that he felt that it was best for the team – despite of course Ronaldo coming on and scoring the winning goal – that could well have been scored earlier had the Real Madrid player started the game.

He spoke to RTP and said: “I thought [about it] a lot.

“I thought, well, Ronaldo did not train 100 per cent in two of the days of work. There were many factors that led to this decision.

“Games are complicated, I tried to manage and do what was best. Whether it was questionable or not, we ended up winning and that’s what matters.”

Hero

Ronaldo is of course used to being the player that everyone looks to when they need the world class goal or the difference made – and it seems that for his club and country that’s not changing any time soon.

Real Madrid struggled at the start of the season because of the suspension Ronaldo had – and it seems that he is needed more than ever, with Gareth Bale suffering from fitness issues yet again.

Real now face a double header in the Champions League against Tottenham Hotspur to boot, and know that with Spurs getting off to a great start in the group, points taken from them would mean they would qualify as group winners and theoretically get an easier draw in the first knockout round.