Three-time player of the year probably will be unable to train full-time for at least nine months and questions whether he'll ever play again.
Ronaldo, Brazil's two-time World Cup winner and three-time FIFA world player of the year, said Friday that he was resigned to a lengthy rehabilitation after undergoing surgery on his left knee. He expressed some doubt whether he would ever play again.
Speaking in Paris, where his knee was operated on last week, the AC Milan forward said he did not know what his long-term future would be.
"My heart tells me to play again but my body is sending me signs of fatigue and suffering," the 31-year-old said. "It's been a real knockout blow, both physically and mentally."
Ronaldo, who has played only sporadically since the Germany '06 World Cup, in which he became the tournament's all-time leading goal scorer, said his focus for now had to be on rehabilitation, not on playing.
"If I'm OK at the end of that, then of course I'll play again," he said. "If there's another ending, it will be a difficult and sad decision. I know exactly the bridges I have to cross. I have experience of recuperating from injury."
The surgeon who operated on Ronaldo said it would be at least nine months before the forward could begin full-time training.
Ronaldo's contract with AC Milan ends in June and it is unlikely that the reigning world and European champion will offer him a new pact.
What is possible is that Ronaldo will consider an offer already being made by the Brazilian club Flamengo, which tried to sign him in January before the player's latest injury setback. "The dream of having Ronaldo with us is still alive," Kleber Leite, Flamengo's vice president, said earlier this month.
Ronaldo, who won the World Cup with Brazil in 1994 and 2002, has indicated a desire to finish his career in his native land. "My dream is to finish my career with Flamengo," he said today.
With Ronaldo sidelined indefinitely, AC Milan already is causing rumblings in the transfer market, with Adriano Galliani, the team's vice president, identifying Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Andriy Shevchenko, Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor and Olympique Lyon's Karim Benzema as possible targets.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-spw-soccer23feb23,1,7190738.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
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