sport news IAN HERBERT: Portugal shut out the noise of the Cristiano Ronaldo circus trends now
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Cristiano Ronaldo was kept out of the press conference he ought to have given, on the eve of his fifth World Cup, but he was the elephant in the room.
Relentless questions about him left Portugal coach Fernando Santos frustrated and Bruno Fernandes smiling wryly.
The Portuguese FA have been going to great lengths to deflate the Manchester United controversy their captain has brought by getting the players to draw each other. Ronaldo was highly amused by his pencil sketch of Pepe. But Fernandes provided a hint of why his former United team-mate ego's might have its shortcomings.
Cristiano Ronaldo was kept out of the press conference he ought to have given on Wednesday
Instead it was Portugal coach Fernando Santos and Bruno Fernandes who spoke to the press
Ronaldo's opening gambit to Fernandes, after they met up at the team base in Lisbon last week, was about how he had arrived faster in his personal jet and whether his compatriot had travelled by boat.
'Actually, I was in a plane for two hours,' Fernandes said. 'I was not in the same mood, and he made a joke. He has his plane and this time I wasn't able to join him. When we can we travel together but when you take scheduled flights there are delays. He could laugh. I couldn't.'
There was intrigue surrounding a seemingly frosty reunion between the two in Lisbon. But if there was an issue,
