Cristiano Ronaldo is still on the books at Manchester United following the summer transfer window, but the Portuguese veteran is grappling with the fallout of his failed transfer request.
The 37-year-old dropped a bombshell on new Old Trafford chief Erik ten Hag when he made it clear that he wanted to quit the club following their calamitous Premier League campaign, however, the blockbuster move that Ronaldo craved failed to materialise before the September 1 deadline.
While there is a multitude of factors behind Ronaldo's desire to cut his second spell at United short, the club's failure to qualify for the Champions League is believed to be the primary reason behind Ronaldo's attempts to engineer a move.
Since he initially joined Manchester United at the age of 18, Ronaldo has featured in Europe's premier competition every single year and is the competition's all-time leading goalscorer with 140 goals.
But Ronaldo's remarkable run of 19 consecutive years of playing in the Champions League has now come to an abrupt end - and as a result, his prized European record could be under threat from Lionel Messi.
The Argentine superstar and Ronaldo are widely recognised as the two finest players of their generation, with Messi second in the Champions League scoring ranks behind only Ronaldo.
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The Paris Saint-Germain forward made Champions League history on Wednesday night as he edged past previous records that were held by Ronaldo. Messi has now scored against 39 different clubs in the competition; Ronaldo was the previous holder with 38.
While Messi still has some way to go before he will be in a position to pinch Ronaldo's main record, former Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino was adamant that the Manchester United man's desire to quit the club was driven by a 'fear' of losing his goalscoring record.
And with Messi and PSG fancied to go deep in the competition, those fears are now in danger of becoming a stark reality for Ronaldo, who is poised to make only his second-ever Europa League appearance on Thursday evening.
Speaking back in July, Cascarino told talkSPORT: "Ronaldo is a player, as always, that has an ego. A lot of it is about him but the teams he's played in have been successful, so you always go with that as a team player.
"Great, he scores goals, he gets the accolades, he's one of the greatest that's ever played the game. You can have all that and that's fine, as long as you're winning. When you don't win, now you've got a problem.
"I said to you off-air, I'm a bit suspicious because he's got 141 goals in the Champions League. Messi has got 125. He doesn't want to not play Champions League football because he wants to be the greatest Champions League goalscorer of all time and that's how Ronaldo is made."
