Cristiano Ronaldo is at the centre of a storm in the Saudi Pro League, where the veteran forward is understood to be on strike over the running of Al-Nassr.
Ronaldo joined the Riyadh club 2023 but missed their last Pro League match, reportedly over disagreements with representatives of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which is the majority owner of Al-Nassr and three other Pro League clubs.
The 41-year-old has been wheeled out for global propaganda purposes on a regular basis but a lack of success has seemingly enraged the £165 million-per-year veteran, explaining his absence from the squad against Al-Riyadh on Monday.
Al-Nassr's 1-0 win temporarily put them top of the table but Ronaldo's dissent stole the headlines. With a home match against Al-Ittihad due to kick off at 5.30pm UK time, all eyes are on the teamsheet.
Al-Nassr might be in the running for collective honours but Ronaldo has personal targets in his sights too. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid megastar and five-time Ballon d'Or winner wants to score 1,000 career goals.
Ronaldo is closing in on the extraordinary milestone, apparently falling out with the powers that be at Al-Nassr with 961 career goals to his name.
A record 143 of those goals have been scored in senior international football for Portugal, with whom he won the European Championship in 2016. He has played for his country 226 times.
The bulk of the other 818 goals on Ronaldo's individual tally sheet were scored for Sporting CP, Man United, Real Madrid and Juventus.
He has scored 91 times in 95 league appearances for Al-Nassr, with another 26 gleaned from domestic and continental club cup competitions.
The Portugal captain returned to training after sitting out the game against Al-Riyadh but Al-Nassar and SPL officials are on tenterhooks, anticipating a decision on his availability in the second game of the week.
One player who definitely won't feature at Al-Awwal Park today is Ronaldo's former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema, whose tumultuous switch from Al-Ittihad to league leaders Al-Hilal is understood to be linked with Ronaldo's disgruntlement.
Jorge Jesus' Al-Nassr teamsheet will reveal what's next for Ronaldo, who is ranked at no.4 in FourFourTwo's list of the greatest players of all time.
Sadio Mane scored the only goal of the game on Monday. Joao Felix, Abdulrahman Ghareeb and Ayman Ahmed backed up the centre-forward in Jesus' line-up in Ronaldo's absence.
