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Ronaldo left out of Al Nassr squad for Pakhtakor tie; Postecoglou says rested, 15 goals short of 1,000
Cristiano Ronaldo was left out of Al Nassr's squad for the AFC Champions League match at Pakhtakor in Tashkent on 2 November. Some outlets link it to Gulf security worries. Ronaldo has 985 career goals.
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Cristiano Ronaldo was left out of Al Nassr's squad for their AFC Champions League match against Pakhtakor in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Monday, 2 November.
'We rested them given the pressure of matches and the amount of travel involved,' Postecoglou said. He added that the team had now reached an excellent stage after a difficult start. Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in a Saudi Pro League match last week, which took his career tally to 985 goals for club and country, leaving the 41-year-old 15 short of 1,000.
Al Nassr are ninth in the western zone group and the lowest-ranked of the five Saudi clubs in the competition. They are seeking their first Asian title.
Several outlets tie the decision to regional security concerns, but none of the reports links it to a threat against Ronaldo himself. A recent Champions League game was postponed after the UAE side Al-Wasl refused to travel to Riyadh, and Al Nassr's home match on 12 October was delayed by an hour after reports of missile attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels. Reports differ on how much weight the instability carried in the decision.
The same concerns hang over the Asian Cup, which is due to start in Saudi Arabia on 7 January 2027. Japan Football Association president Tsuneyasu Miyamoto said he believes the situation is still unsafe and that holding the tournament there would not be easy. Saudi organisers say preparations are on schedule. AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa said a final decision will be made by the end of November and that the tournament could be postponed to 2028 if necessary.
Ronaldo has missed Al Nassr matches before, including a rest earlier this year, and the club has not described any injury. Whether he returns for the next league game has not been announced. Pakhtakor and Al Nassr kicked off in Tashkent on Monday, and the result was not available at the time of writing.
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