Zinedine Zidane: Cristiano Ronaldo won't be ready for the start

Zinedine Zidane, Real Madrid's coach, has confirmed that Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo has little chance of being fit to start the season. The club's first league game is against Real Sociedad on August 21. 

In the press conference ahead of Madrid's friendly against Chelsea in Ann Arbor on Saturday, the French coach said: "Cristiano is ruled out for the Super Cup. For the first game of La Liga, we will see. His injury needs a month and later he has to prepare, because we're not going to put him in after a month without having done anything. Between the Super Cup and the first game there are 10 days. It seems a little... we will see. He will be with us, but I don't think that he will be ready for the first game."

Zidane also spoke about Karim Benzema's injury and has explained that "Tomorrow he will not play. His discomfort hasn't gone. He is better and I hope that he can play a bit in the third game. It's important he plays a bit before the Super Cup."