Cristiano Ronaldo has been ruled out of Al Nassr’s game against Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami due to a muscular injury.
Thursday’s match, which is part of a mini-series called the Riyadh Season Cup, had been billed as the ‘Last Dance’ between two of soccer’s all-time great players.
However, the event will now take place without one of its leading men because Ronaldo has not yet fully recovered from a calf problem.
Al Nassr manager Luis Castro confirmed Ronaldo’s absence on Tuesday.
Castro explained: “We will not see [Messi vs. Ronaldo]. Ronaldo is in the final part of his recovery to join the group.
“We hope that in the next few days he can start working with the team. He will be absent from the game.”
Al Nassr recently canceled two planned exhibition matches in China as a result of Ronaldo’s injury.
Thursday’s game will be Miami’s fourth pre-season fixture of 2024.
Messi and Co lost 4-3 to Al-Hilal in the opening game of the Riyadh Season Cup on Monday, despite Luis Suarez scoring his first goal for the club.
That defeat followed a 1-0 loss to FC Dallas and a 0-0 draw with El Salvador.
Ronaldo, 38, and Messi, 36, faced off against each other 36 times in competitive matches during their epic rivalry.
Messi was on the winning team in 16 of those games and lost 11, while nine ended tied.
Their most recent meeting on the pitch came in January last year when Messi helped his former club Paris Saint-Germain to a 5-4 win over a Riyadh all-star XI featuring players from Al-Hilal and Al Nassr.
