Cristiano Ronaldo will miss Manchester United's clash with Leicester City on Saturday night through illness.
The Red Devils welcome the Foxes to Old Trafford looking to continue their push for the top four, but will have to do so without their leading scorer. Ronaldo bagged a hat-trick in the team's last Premier League win against Tottenham before the international break. United currently find themselves sat in sixth - four points behind Arsenal in fourth despite playing a game more.
Rangnick told MUTV on Ronaldo's absence: "Unfortunately he [Ronaldo] had some flu like symptoms before training yesterday so he didn't feel well enough to train. We then decided to send our doctor to his home this morning to check if he felt any better, which he didn't unfortunately."
Ronaldo helped Portugal qualify for the World Cup in Qatar during his time away from Manchester as the Euro 2016 winners saw off North Macedonia. The event in Qatar will be a record-breaking one for Ronaldo, who will become only the fourth man to appear at five World Cups.
The 37-year-old has been relied on heavily by United this term following an unexpected return to Old Trafford in the summer. His goals have been huge for the Red Devils, despite criticism coming Ronaldo's way on his second coming in Manchester.
Nevertheless the team's No 7 has scored 18 times in all competitions this term and is the only man to hit double figures. Edinson Cavani has also joined him on the sidelines having picked up an injury whilst away with Uruguay. Ralf Rangnick said on Cavani: "According to the doctor, he will be out for a couple of weeks, four weeks, maybe even five weeks. So we have to wait and see. That’s obviously bad news to have another striker missing out. Apart from that, all the others seem to be fit."
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Leicester beat United 4-2 at the King Power earlier this season, back when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was still at the helm. The team now have little margin for error if they want to be in the Champions League next term with Rangnick insisting they have to pick up every point available.
He said: "It’s one game at a time but obviously we cannot afford to drop points anymore. To start with [against Leicester], we have to try everything to win the game tomorrow but even if we do so, it’s not only in our own hands because Arsenal are four points ahead, have one game in hand against Chelsea, but we also have some difficult games.
"Our focus is on the next game, which is Leicester. Not an easy game, they had a good run recently with three wins out of the last four games and a few injured players coming back so we are fully aware that this is a good opponent but we are also aware that if we perform well that we can beat them, quite like West Ham or Tottenham."
