Cristiano Ronaldo has been seen arriving back to his home island of Madeira after his mother was rushed to hospital after suffering a stroke.
The footballer was reportedly driven straight to Dr Nelio Mendonca Hospital in the capital Funchal after his private jet touched down from Italy just after 4pm on Tuesday.
He had taken the trip with his girlfriend, Georgina Rodriguez and his eldest son, Cristiano Ronaldo Jr, known as Cristianinho.
According to local reports, Cristiano walked into the hospital via a back entrance to avoid reporters and fans who had gathered outside the main entrance.
His mother, Dolores Aveiro, 65, is said to have been admitted to hospital just after 5am on Tuesday morning. Local media say she is ‘conscious and stable’.
Cristiano, 35, was due to play for Juventus in the Italian cup on Wednesday night, but he travelled to be with his mother after the medical emergency.
He is set to remain overnight in Madeira but is expected to leave on Wednesday morning unless his mum’s condition worsens, so he can be back in Italy in time for his side’s cup match against Milan in the evening.
One local report says his mother has suffered an ischemic stroke, which is an obstruction of the artery, preventing the passage of oxygen to brain cells, which is the most common type of stroke.
She is understood to have received mechanical thrombectomy, a technique which involves the removal of a blood clot from the artery through a catheter.
At the start of last year Dolores revealed she was ‘fighting for her life’ after a recurrence of cancer after being diagnosed with the disease in 2007 – the Juventus player then reportedly donated £100,000 to the hospital that saved his mum’s life two years later.
But in February last year ahead of a trip to Italy to celebrate her footballer son’s 35th birthday she admitted to new health problems.
She told a Portuguese TV station in an interview: ‘I was operated on another breast in Madrid, I’ve had radiotherapy and now I’m fighting for my life.’
Metro
