By Marcus Lee
Rio de Janeiro - Brazilian striker Ronaldo, playing alongside Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher, passed his latest fitness test with five goals in a charity match on Wednesday.
Ronaldo, 24, showed no ill-effects in his first game following an 11-month injury lay-off.
More than 40 000 fans came to the Maracana Stadium to watch Ronaldo terrorise his opponents, mostly made up of retired players and television actors, with a series of powerful runs and deft flicks.
After a cautious start, Ronaldo scored twice before the interval and capped his performance with a second-half hat-trick.
The two-time World Player of the Year underwent surgery to reconstruct knee ligaments last April and was recently given the go-ahead to resume full training.
Schumacher used the match to hone his fitness for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, but the German was guilty of some poor finishing.
He wasted a string of opportunities set up by Ronaldo and former Brazil striker Zico before getting on the scoresheet with a second-half penalty.
"It was great fun playing alongside Schumacher," Ronaldo said. "He by no means looked out of place. We even worked on some neat one-twos together."
The Inter Milan player admitted the game had been little more than a kick-about, but said it had still provided a valuable test of his fitness.
"I feel fine," he said. "It's obvious I'm still not 100 percent, but after the game I feel less worried about the future.
Although he was happy with his form, Ronaldo wouldn't set a date for his competitive comeback.
"There's no timetable or deadline. I'll be back when I'm ready and not before," he said. - Reuters