Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus has revealed that he sought advice from Brazilian football legend Ronaldo during his ongoing recovery from a knee injury.
The 20-year-old has been out of action since leaving the field in tears after sustaining the injury against Crystal Palace on New Year's Eve.
Jesus was expected to return to action in early-to-mid February, but his comeback has been delayed as he has still yet to return to full training with City.
After speaking to Ronaldo at Neymar's birthday party in Paris last week, Jesus is now targeting a return to action before the end of the month.
"Besides being a fan of him as a player, I had the pleasure of getting to know the person he is, which made me admire him even more," he is quoted as saying by The Sun. "He's conquered everything, but is still humble and great company. I'm proud to be able to have his help and advice.
"I'm getting better every day and recovering, but I must recover well, not too fast. The knee is very complicated, even more so as I've never had an injury there. I need to take good care of myself so that I can get back better than I was.
"There were a lot of negative things in my head. When I felt the pain there, I tried to continue, but I couldn't. That moment was complicated because I had thoughts about the national team [and the World Cup], about the rest of the season - I thought of everything.
"I'm hitting the ball a little bit now. I missed that a lot, but I'm still a little scared. In a week, I'll spend more days hitting the ball and, in a short time, I'll train with the team again."
Jesus scored 10 goals and set up two more in all competitions prior to being struck down by injury.
Daniel Lewis
