FOOTBALL: Manchester United manager Ten Hag doesn’t confirm whether Cristiano Ronaldo apologized for his behavior against Tottenham

Man­ches­ter Unit­ed man­ag­er Erik Ten Hag declined to con­firm whether Cris­tiano Ronal­do apol­o­gized for refus­ing to play against Tot­ten­ham last week.

The 37-year-old Ronal­do refused to come off the bench in last Wednes­day’s Pre­mier League match against Tot­ten­ham, spark­ing a major con­fronta­tion with 52-year-old Ten Hag.

Instead, he ran into a tun­nel and left Old Traf­ford before the time.

In response, Ten Hag pulled the five-time Bal­lon d’Or win­ner out of first-team train­ing and kicked him out of the squad ahead of last week­end’s clash with Chelsea.

Ronal­do returned to the side on Thurs­day after a crit­i­cal meet­ing with the Unit­ed boss and scored a goal against Sher­iff to help the club win 3–0.

But while the strik­er appears to have regained good rela­tions with Ten­hag, the Dutch­man has refused to con­firm whether Ronal­do has apologized.

In an inter­view with Sky Sports, he said: “Did Cris­tiano Ronal­do apol­o­gize? I’ve explained enough.

“Cris­tiano is an impor­tant player.

“He scored on Thurs­day, so I’m hap­py about that. He can be more important.”

Ronal­do is expect­ed to leave Old Traf­ford in Jan­u­ary after a poor start to the season.

Sport­ing Lis­bon are report­ed­ly prepar­ing to bid for the Red Dev­ils once the trans­fer win­dow opens.

The Mir­ror reports that the Lions will ask Man­ches­ter Unit­ed to pay a por­tion of the wages of the five-time Bal­lon d’Or winner.