Portugal's World Cup preparations have been dealt another blow, with an injury, illness and suspension crisis leaving Cristiano Ronaldo at risk of missing out on what could be his final opportunity to play at the tournament.
The Euro 2016 winners are due to take on Turkey in their World Cup qualifying play-off on Thursday, having finished second in their group behind Serbia. The winners of the game in Porto will then take on either Italy or North Macedonia for a place in the finals in Qatar.
Ronaldo scored more goals than any other Portuguese player in the group phase, netting six times. However, a number of absentees for Fernando Santos' side could leave their hopes of qualification up in smoke.
Portugal were already without Joao Cancelo and Renato Sanches, with the pair picking up suspensions. Both players were booked in the 2-1 home defeat against Serbia in November, having been cautioned earlier in the competition.
Ruben Dias, Ruben Neves and Nelson Semedo will also sit out the Turkey game, with the trio all injured. Dias and Semedo have been absent for a number of weeks, while Neves suffered a knee injury in Wolverhampton Wanderers' Friday defeat against Leeds United.
And now things have got even worse, with the news that veteran defender Pepe has tested positive for Covid-19. The centre-back is expected to be available for the second of the two play-off games, with Sanches and Cancelo also available if Santos' team beat Turkey, but the depleted side will need to get past their first opponents without six senior men.
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Ronaldo is Portugal's second highest World Cup goalscorer with seven goals across four tournaments. Only Eusebio has more, with nine, but a setback against Turkey - or indeed in the following game - could end the veteran's chances of breaking the record.
Only three players have competed at five different World Cups: Lothar Matthaus, Rafael Marquez and Antonio Carbajal. Marquez was the latest to join the club when he played in Russia in 2018, a tournament in which Ronaldo scored four of his seven World Cup goals.
Ronaldo will be 41 by the time the 2026 World Cup rolls around, and only one outfield player, Roger Milla, has played at a World Cup in his forties. However, one of the Man Utd man's former teammates has refused to rule the Portugal star out of the next-but-one tournament.
"It wouldn’t surprise me if he carried on playing until he was 40," former United captain Gary Neville said. "[We] saw Tom Brady come out of retirement.
"One of the great things about these players is longevity, it is so important to them, the idea that they can go on longer and further and still play at the highest level. You look at the clubs [Ronaldo has] played for, the leagues he’s played in, they way he’s demonstrated his skill all over the world so it wouldn’t surprise me if there was another story beyond Manchester."
