COVID-19: Cristiano Ronaldo tests positive on Portugal national team duty, will miss at least two Juventus games

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Oct 13, 2020

After Brazilian star Neymar and Frenchmen Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe, Cristiano Ronaldo became the latest soccer superstar to test positive for COVID-19.

The test result came two days after Ronaldo started in Portugal's 0-0 tie with France in UEFA Nations League qualifying at the Stade de France. And it came a day after he posted a photo showing him at the end of a long table with his teammates having a meal together. No one else in the Portugal squad tested positive.

Unidos dentro e fora do campo!  #todosportugal pic.twitter.com/4bQSUIPm2m

— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 12, 2020

Ronaldo is in isolation and will miss Portugal's Nations League match against Sweden on Wednesday in Lisbon.

“Ronaldo is doing great. He is dealing very well with this,” Portugal coach Fernando Santos  said. “He is asymptomatic, he has no problems. He doesn’t even know how this happened to him.”

Juventus teammate Giorgio Chiellini said he had spoken to Ronaldo and "he's fine and was sunbathing, he’ll be back when he’s ready."

But the Portuguese star will be out for at least Juve's next two games -- Saturday's Serie A game at Crotone and the opening Champions League match at Dynamo Kyev three days later. He will have to self-isolate for 10 days and then receive a negative test before he can return to play.

In September, Mbappe tested positive two days after scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win over Sweden. He missed the next game against Croatia. Pogba missed France's matches in September after his pre-camp COVID test was positive.

Neymar and Paris St. Germain teammates Angel Di Maria and Leandro Paredes all returned positive tests after a trip to Ibiza following PSG's loss to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League final.