 "Cristiano Ronaldo had also missed Al Nassr's Champions League opener in September. AP")
Aymeric Laporte and Anderson Talisca were the goal-scorers as Al-Nassr played out a 3-3 draw against Al Kholood in a Saudi Pro League (SPL) match on Friday. The draw helped Al-Nassr, placed third in the competition, remain unbeaten (Five wins and three draws). One of the talking points of Al -Nassr’s match was, however, Cristiano Ronaldo missing the game
Ronaldo had played the full 90 minutes against Iranian side Esteghlal in the AFC Champions League Elite competition on Tuesday (22 October), but missed the match against Al Kholood on Friday.
Why did Ronaldo miss the match against Al Kholood?
There are no injury worries as far as Cristiano Ronaldo is concerned. Having said that, Ronaldo was not even named on the Al-Nassr bench for the match against Al-Kholood. The reason to exclude Ronaldo from the Al Nassr squad for the Kholood match could simply be due to the 39-year-old’s workload. Ronaldo has played 11 matches across competitions this season for Al Nassr. This includes seven out of the eight matches in the Saudi Pro League, as well as two out of the three matches in the AFC Champions League.
Al Nassr have a packed fixture list coming up, including a King’s Cup match against Al-Taawoun on Tuesday, and several AFC Champions League matches in between.
In September, Ronaldo did miss an AFC Champions League match against Al Shorta in Iraq after being diagnosed by a viral infection. Al-Nassr were held to a 1-1 draw against the side from Iraq in that match. Sultan Al Ghanam scored the opening goal for the visitors in the 14th minute, but only 10 minutes later, Mohammed Dawood scored the equaliser for Al-Shorta.
“Al-Nassr captain Cristiano Ronaldo was not feeling well today and was diagnosed with a viral infection,” Al Nassr had confirmed back then. “The team’s doctor confirmed he needs to rest and stay at home. As a result he will not be travelling with the team to Iraq today. We wish our captain a speedy recovery,” the club had added.
Since joining Al-Nassr in late 2022, Ronaldo has scored 73 goals in 81 matches. He won the Arab Club Champions Cup with Al-Nassr in 2023. This season, Ronaldo has scored six and assisted two goals for Al-Nassr.