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Cristiano Ronaldo responded to Italy’s Sports Minister on Friday by denying that he broke the coronavirus protocol adopted for the country’s soccer after returning from international service positive for the disease.
On Thursday, Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora said Portugal’s captain Ronaldo had broken protocol after leaving isolation with his club, Juventus, to join his national team and then return to Italy after his positive test.
He is currently in quarantine at his home in Turin after traveling from Portugal in an air ambulance.
“I never broke protocol,” Ronaldo said during an interview on Instagram, adding that he traveled after obtaining permission to do so and had avoided contact with other people.
“Someone, whose name I will not say, here in Italy … says that I did not respect the protocol, that is simply a lie.
“I continue with my quarantine, I am alone, my family is on another floor, we cannot be in contact and it will be like that for at least the next 10 days.”
Local health authorities in the Piedmont region said prosecutors had been informed of the departure of Ronaldo and other Juve players to join their respective national teams, while the Italian champions were isolated following two Covid-19 cases between non-player team personnel.
Juventus said Thursday that Ronaldo, who claims not to have the “slightest symptom”, returned to Italy on a “medical flight authorized by the competent health authorities.”
The entire Juve squad was once again isolated on Wednesday night after American midfielder Weston McKennie tested positive.
Both McKennie and Ronaldo are in quarantine and must test negative before meeting with their teammates.
Under UEFA rules, a player must provide evidence that he is no longer ill one week before a European match.
Ronaldo, who will miss Juve’s Serie A match with Crotone and his first Champions League match against Dynamo Kiev on October 20, must test negative on October 21 to play against Barcelona and his former enemy Lionel Messi a week later.
