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Cristiano Ronaldo's international retirement caught his own national team coach completely off guard. Jorge Jesus, Portugal's manager, says he found out when the rest of the world did, which tells you everything about how this announcement went down. No private conversation, no heads up, nothing. One of the greatest international careers in football history ended without so much as a phone call to the coach.
Shifting to the NFL, the New York Giants are already dealing with enough heading into their Week nine matchup against Philadelphia, and now Cam Skattebo is trending toward missing that game entirely. Losing your starting running back before a division matchup with the Eagles, while simultaneously hunting for trade deadline additions on defense, is not the situation you want walking into a Monday night spotlight.
And Atlanta is feeling the injury bug hard this week. The Falcons have ruled out running back Brian Robinson Junior with a hamstring injury, along with wide receiver Zachariah Branch, also hamstring. Robinson had been limited all week in practice, so this one was coming, but losing him removes a critical piece of the backfield heading into a week nine game Atlanta genuinely needs to win.
That's your play-by-play. Sports Desk, back to the booth.
