Cristiano Ronaldo won't be playing in the United States this month after all. Portugal have left the 41-year-old out of their squad for upcoming friendlies against Mexico and the USMNT, with a hamstring injury — sustained in Al Nassr's Saudi Pro League game against Al Fayha — forcing him into a spell of rest and treatment in Spain.
Al Nassr head coach Jorge Jesus confirmed the nature and severity of the problem earlier this month, with Ronaldo already having missed club wins over Neom and Al Khaleej. There was no quick return on the horizon, and Portugal's selectors have made the pragmatic call.
Ticket market will feel this immediately
The commercial fallout is real. The USMNT game was trending toward a sell-out at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, with resale tickets sitting around $70 in the upper tiers and north of $300 closer to the pitch. Compare that to next weekend's match against Belgium — same venue, same 75,000 seats — where resale starts at $24. Ronaldo's name was doing heavy lifting on that pricing. Whether it collapses now or just softens depends on how quickly the market reacts, but the gap between those two games wasn't down to Belgium's pulling power.
It's worth remembering this would have ended Ronaldo's 12-year absence from playing on American soil. His last appearance in the US was August 2, 2014 — a pre-season substitute appearance for Real Madrid against Manchester United at Michigan Stadium in front of 109,318 people. Since allegations emerged in 2017 — always denied, never charged — he has quietly stayed away from exhibition matches in the country, regardless of which club he was at. A White House visit in November was his first public reappearance stateside. An international game against the host nation, with the World Cup 90 days out, would have been a different kind of statement entirely.
Portugal's squad still has teeth
Ronaldo's absence doesn't gut the squad. Bruno Fernandes leads a group that includes PSG's Champions League-winning trio of Vitinha, João Neves and Nuno Mendes. Rafael Leão, Pedro Neto, Francisco Conceição and Gonçalo Ramos give Roberto Martínez options across the front line. This is a Portugal side that functions without Ronaldo — they've had to get comfortable with that reality.
Notable absentees alongside Ronaldo include Rúben Dias and Bernardo Silva, both of Manchester City.
The next time Ronaldo is expected to feature is at the World Cup itself. Portugal open Group K on June 17 at NRG Stadium in Houston against either New Caledonia, Jamaica or DR Congo, before facing Uzbekistan and Colombia. A three-match ban from his red card in the Republic of Ireland qualifier was largely suspended by FIFA's Disciplinary Committee, clearing him for the tournament.
Portugal's odds to progress from Group K look comfortable regardless. But Ronaldo at a home World Cup, on American soil, with 226 caps and 143 international goals — that storyline just got delayed, not cancelled.
