Cristiano Ronaldo has been excluded from the Portugal football squad for international matches due to an investigation into rape allegations reopening this week.
The 33-year-old Juventus footballer has denied accusations made by Kathryn Mayorga that the superstar player raped her in a Las Vegas hotel nine years ago.
The Las Vegas police announced the case is being reinvestigated after accusations were made in an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine in which she claimed that a psychiatrist had diagnosed post-traumatic stress and depression because of the alleged assault.
Ronaldo has issued a denial of the accusations, “I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me,” he said.
“Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense.
“My clear conscious will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations,” said the multi-millionaire player.
Ronaldo, a former Portuguese team captain, was not named in the 23-player squad preparing for fixtures against Poland and Scotland.
Mayorga's lawyers this week sued Ronaldo in a district court in Clark County, Nevada, and said to the press that the footballer had 20 days from the filing of the lawsuit in which to respond.
Mayorga was not at the press conference, her lawyers claimed she suffers from severe mental and emotional damage as a result of the alleged assault.
“She has decided not to make herself available to the media and stay out of the public because of her emotional state,” attorney Leslie Stovall said. “It is not pleasant for her.”
Her lawyers now are considering whether to release documents that they claim relate to the case, including medical records, police reports and details of an out-of-court settlement that allegedly included a non-disclosure agreement about the rape.
