Ronaldo ready for Portugal

Man United star returns after injury

By Patricio Figueroa   Last updated: 6th October 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Ronaldo ready for Portugal

Queiroz with Ronaldo

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Carlos Queiroz will take charge of Cristiano Ronaldo for the first time as Portugal boss after confirming him in his squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Sweden and Albania.

Ronaldo has been sidelined since Euro 2008 but now he is back fully fit and will spearhead Portugal's attack in the forthcoming matches.

Queiroz will be hoping for some inspiration from Ronaldo after they suffered a shock home loss to Denmark in their last qualifier.

"It's great to be back in the national squad," Ronaldo said on the Portuguese Football Federation's official website.

"These are two important games we want to win. We have an excellent group of players and coaches and I'm very optimistic."

Inter Milan winger Ricardo Quaresma also returns after missing the first two qualifiers.

Queiroz has also called up Deco and Maniche - even though both are huge injury doubts.

Simao Sabrosa and Ricardo Carvalho are both definitely out, whilst Rangers' Pedro Mendes misses out along with Sporting's Miguel Veloso.

Squad in full

Quim (Benfica), Eduardo Carvalho (Braga), Daniel Fernandes (Bochum)

Defenders: Jose Bosingwa (Chelsea), Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea), Fernando Meira (Galatasaray), Bruno Alves (Porto), Pepe (Real Madrid), Vitorino Antunes (Lecce), Miguel (Valencia), Tonel (Sporting), Raul Meireles (Porto), Joao Moutinho (Sporting), Carlos Martins (Benfica), Danny (Zenit St Petersburg), Maniche (Atletico Madrid), Deco (Chelsea), Yannick Djalo (Sporting), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Nuno Gomes (Benfica), Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen), Nani (Manchester United), Ricardo Quaresma (Inter Milan)

Meanwhile, Portugal have confirmed they will face Brazil in a friendly on November 19.