Italian press say Juventus have 'anxiety' over Ronaldo's knee injury

Juventus 'are deeply anxious' that Cristiano Ronaldo will aggravate a knee injury if he plays for Portugal in their crucial Euro 2020 qualifiers this week.

The Italian league leaders are involved in a delicate situation amid claim and counter-claim over the true condition of the 34-year-old star's right knee.

Manager Maurizio Sarri withdrew Ronaldo after just 55 minutes of their 1-0 win over AC Milan on Sunday and claimed afterwards that the Portuguese was suffering from an injury.

Sarri said that Ronaldo 'took a blow to the knee and has a hematoma on the internal collateral'. The manager added: 'It is not a huge problem, but it needs conditioning.'

According to reports in Italy, Ronaldo has been struggling with the issue for the best part of three weeks and hasn't been training with the Juventus group.

The injury first came to light ahead of Juve's 2-1 home win over Genoa on October 30, a match in which Ronaldo scored.

He subsequently played the full 90 minutes of their 1-0 derby win at Torino and 82 minutes of the Champions League fixture away to Lokomotiv Moscow.

But what is causing Juventus most apprehension is that the Portugal manager Fernando Santos has played down the injury and plans to play Ronaldo in their Euro 2020 qualifier with Lithuania in Faro on Thursday evening.

The defending European champions, who have Serbia breathing down their neck in qualifying group B as they try and secure automatic qualification, then travel to Luxembourg on Sunday.

Speaking on Wednesday, Santos said that Ronaldo had been training normally and was as motivated as ever, saying: 'If he hadn't have been good, I wouldn't even have called him.'

He added: 'Everyone wants to talk about Cristiano Ronaldo and give his opinion because he is the best in the world.

'The difference with Juve? Let's talk about this just because he is Ronaldo. No other player happens like that.

'Cristiano is here with us, he is well and against Lithuania he will play. On this there is no doubt and therefore for me, there is no case.'