Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has insisted that Cristiano Ronaldo does not have a knee injury ahead of Saturday's La Liga encounter with Espanyol at the Santiago Bernabeu.
The Portugal international, 29, was rested for his side's 2-0 Copa del
Rey defeat against city-rivals Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, leading to
speculation that he was being plagued by physical problems once more.
Nevertheless,
Ancelotti has stressed there's no truth in such rumours, before adding
that the prolific attacker will feature from the start against Espanyol.
"Ronaldo does not have any knee problems," Ancelotti insisted at a press conference.
"Ronaldo is one of the most professional players I have ever coached. He is very serious about recovery.
"He will return to the starting XI against Espanyol."
Ancelotti
then went on to admit that Madrid are not yet at the same level as they
were toward the end of 2014, but he made it clear he's not too worried
about his side's defeats against Valencia and Atletico.
"We have
not reached the same level as toward the end of last year yet, but the
data show that we're in fine shape physically," he added.
"We are not in ideal shape mentally, but that's only normal.
"There were a lot more doubts back in September when we lost two games in a row."
The
Madrid coach also had his say on the potential signings of Norwegian
wonderkid Martin Odegaard and Brazilian midfielder Lucas Silva and
stated that no final decisions have been made yet.
"Odegaard
clearly has a great future ahead of him. He is very young, but has a lot
of quality. He has been training with us because we wanted to meet him
in person. But we have not taken a decision yet.
"Lucas Silva? For the moment we don't need more players."
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