Cristiano Ronaldo is ready to pull on a Manchester United shirt for the first time in two-and-a-half months as the Red Devils host Spanish side Rayo Vallecano in a friendly on Sunday.
The Portugal captain, 37, has announced he will return to action for his club this Sunday despite the fact he was left out of the squad to face Atletico Madrid in Oslo, Norway on Saturday. He is yet to make an appearance under Erik ten Hag having missed United's pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia for 'family reasons'.
Ronaldo, meanwhile, has been pushing to leave Old Trafford to join a club which can offer him Champions League football, but his manager has insisted he is going nowhere. The striker has been forced to address claims about his future with just over one week remaining until the start of United's Premier League campaign.
In a major boost for Ten Hag, Ronaldo has announced he is ready to feature for the Red Devils for the first time since the 4-0 defeat by Brighton in early May. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner responded to a post on one of his many Instagram fan pages which shared the list of the 21-man squad travelling to Scandinavia for Saturday's clash with Atletico.
The post was captioned: "Cristiano Ronaldo did not make the list of Manchester United players for this weekend's friendly games against Atletico Madrid (Saturday) and Rayo Vallecano (Sunday). His future remains open..."
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Despite what the fan page claimed, the squad list only applied for the game against Atletico, and not the fixture against Rayo Vallecano the following day.
Ronaldo pointed this out in the comments on Friday evening as he simply declared: "Sunday the King plays." While the former Real Madrid and Juventus forward has announced himself ready to return to action for United, Ten Hag may well have other ideas about fielding a player who is commanding so much off-pitch attention.
The likes of Bayern Munich, Sporting Lisbon, Chelsea and Napoli have been touted as potential destinations for Ronaldo, yet he remains a Red Devil with one year remaining on his contract. Earlier on Friday, Ronaldo broke his silence on the speculation surrounding him as he responded to another social media post claiming super-agent Jorge Mendes is attempting to force through an exit for his client.
"Impossible not to talk about me one day," he wrote. "Otherwise, the press makes no money. You know that if you don't lie you can't get people's attention. Keep going that one day you got some news right."
