Ronaldo to miss Juve's clash with Atalanta
Cristiano Ronaldo will miss Juventus's Serie A clash with Atalanta on Sunday because of a thigh problem as head coach Andrea Pirlo blamed the player's workload.
The Portugal forward has been struggling with the injury sustained in Juve's 3-1 win over Genoa last weekend and has not taken a full part in training this week, with Paulo Dybala set to start instead.
Juventus has drawn all three of the Serie A games Ronaldo has missed in this campaign, scoring just three goals in the process.
In the league fixtures where Ronaldo has played a part this season, Juve has a win percentage of 66.7 per cent from 27 games (18 wins, five draws and four losses) and have scored an average of 2.1 goals per game.
Pirlo lamented Ronaldo's absence and acknowledged the number of games the 36-year-old has played for club and country in a short timeframe have taken a toll on his fitness.
"Ronaldo will not be in for the match tomorrow," Pirlo said.
"In recent days he has not been able to recover from the flexor problem after last Sunday's game, he does not feel able to push it and would have risked it too much.
"We have decided to leave him at rest and we will try to recover him for Wednesday's match [against Parma]. This problem arose already on Monday after the game. He tried and went out with the team [in training] but couldn't push as he wanted.
"It was too risky to push it. The many matches, even those with the national team, influenced him and so many games did not allow him to recover.
"He has always been in good condition, then the matches in the national team accumulated. He too told me that he shouldn't have played the third game, but then that goal [against Serbia] was cancelled and they didn't get six points.
"They forced him to play the third as well, otherwise he would have returned to Juventus before the third."
Atalanta’s last win against Juventus in Serie A came back in February 2001 and since then the Bianconeri have won 24 of the 32 league games between the two sides, drawing eight.
However, Juve has won only one of its past six games against Atalanta – drawn four and lost one – when all competitions are taken into account, earning that victory in November 2019 in Bergamo.
Defending champion Juve is third in Serie A heading into Sunday and Monday's (AEST) games, 12 points behind leader Inter Milan, and a point ahead of Atalanta in fourth.
Pirlo added: "We have focused ourselves on a new goal, which is not the one suitable for Juventus who have always fought to win the championship.
"But unfortunately the points are a bit distant and the goal must be to finish the season well and reach the final goal [of UEFA Champions League qualification].
"We have worked well during the week knowing that Atalanta are a team with particular characteristics.
"They play a different football than the other teams and therefore we tried moves to counter their fierce pressure. We worked intensely during the week and I'm happy and confident for the game."
