Injury-plagued AC Milan striker Ronaldo said Tuesday he was still hoping to play in the Club World Cup, amid mounting sympathy from teammates over his injury woes.
The 31-year Brazilian joined the team’s training for the first time since the European Champions League winners arrived here last Thursday as they gear up for their first match against Japan’s Urawa Reds.
“I feel fine,” Ronaldo told reporters before working out alone with 30 minutes of light jogging.
The star forward is unlikely to take part in Thursday’s match, but asked if he would be fit should AC Milan reach the final on Sunday, Ronaldo replied: “I will see. I will be trying in the next days.”
Ronaldo has featured in just one match this season, starting against Cagliari two weeks ago in his return from a thigh problem, before injuring his calf in training.
Fellow Brazilian and playmaker Kaka earlier said Milan teammates had been talking to Ronaldo here “because we want him to feel” part of the team.
The 25-year-old Kaka said Ronaldo had gone through “more difficult times,” pointing to his two-year layoff with a knee injury before coming back to help Brazil win the 2002 World Cup in Japan.
Ronaldo scored twice in Brazil’s 2-0 win over Germany in the 2002 final at the Yokohama International Stadium, which is also the venue of AC Milan’s semi-final in this year’s Club World Cup.
Goal-machine Filippo Inzaghi said he has advised Ronald not to make a premature comeback from injury.
“I know what he is going through. I hope he can recover soon,” Inzaghi said.
“However, he must only return if he is 100 percent, and it’s fair that he thinks it so.”
Midfielder Massimo Ambrosini said “the doctors and us teammates stimulate him” and that “even if it won’t be easy, he will come out of it.”
The Club World Cup runs from December 7-16 in Japan and pits the champions of each continent in a straight knock-out tournament.
Milan and Argentina’s Boca Juniors, who beat the Italian side in the 2003 Intercontinental Cup final, are semi-finalists here.
Both sides won the South American-European Intercontinental Cup three times but never the three-year-old Club World Cup.
Boca will meet Tunisia’s Etoile Sahel in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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