Cristiano Ronaldo missed Lionel Messi being crowned Fifa Best Footballer of the Year due to injury

Cristiano Ronaldo missed Lionel Messi being crowned the Fifa Best Footballer of the Year because of an injury suffered in training with Juventus.

Ronaldo’s absence had sparked rumours that he boycotted the ceremony in Milan after finding out he had lost out to Messi.

But Telegraph Sport understands Ronaldo had been due to attend the awards with his Juventus team-mate Matthijs de Ligt, but was forced to cancel after picking up an injury on Monday that could rule him out of tonight’s Serie A game against Brescia.

Ronaldo last month attended the Uefa awards to watch Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk beat him to their Player of the Year title and revealed that he would like to go out for dinner with Messi.

The decision to award Messi the Fifa Player of the Year award caused debate among former players and pundits over whether or not the Argentine deserved it.

While central defender Van Dijk won the Champions League with Liverpool, Ronaldo won the Serie A title with Juventus - making him the first player to win top-flight titles in England, Spain and Italy - and the Nations League with Portugal.

The Portuguese Federation responded to Messi’s victory by posing an image of Ronaldo on social media with the message ‘the best ever’.