Ronaldo is not injured: Real Madrid coach Benitez

Head coach Benitez explained last week that a back injury was behind Ronaldo’s absence in the Audi Cup. Alongside Pepe and Benzema, the Spanish giants are reportedly working on getting the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos fit before the commencement of the new season.

“If I were him, I’d be happy to be at Real Madrid and I’d work hard to improve every day”.

Pepe was substituted just 15 minutes into Tuesday’s preseason friendly at Bayern Munich and, although Madrid coach Rafa Benitez played down the seriousness of the issue after that game, it now looks very unlikely that the Portugal worldwide will be available for the start of Madrid’s La Liga campaign at Sporting Gijon on August. 23.

Real Madrid believe that would allow them to keep a close watch on the midfielder’s development.

The report goes on to indicate that in recent seasons Real Madrid have sold the likes of Mesut Ozil, Gonzalo Higuain and Angel Di Maria in order to bring in their major targets such as Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez. The Portuguese was used in a similar position by Carlo Ancelotti, with the effort yielding no results.

However, De Gea is not expected to start against Tottenham in their season-opener on Saturday at Old Trafford after a lacklustre performance against Paris Saint-Germain in the final pre-season friendly Stateside.