Juventus captain Giorgio Chiellini has said that Cristiano Ronaldo's late departure from the club affected the team massively.

Cristiano Ronaldo left Juventus after playing his last game for the Turin-based side against Udinese where his late winner was unfortunately disallowed by VAR — the match ended in a 2-2 draw which garnered both teams a single point on the opening day of Serie A.

Less than a week later, and with one year left on his Juventus contract, Ronaldo departed from the club earlier than expected and returned to Manchester United for $26 million.

This sudden departure stunned Juve and forced them to make adjustments on the fly. Chiellini shares that he would have preferred if Ronaldo had left Juventus prior to the start of the season so that the team could make the necessary preparations and adjustments.

Via Adriana Garcia of ESPN:

“Cristiano Ronaldo left on Aug. 28,” Chiellini told DAZN. “This creates a shock and I think we paid him in terms of points in the start of the season. It would have been better had he [Ronaldo] left on Aug. 1 as we would have prepared ourselves and we would have arrived ready for the start of the campaign.”

Ronaldo has impressed so far in his return to Old Trafford, scoring 6 goals in 8 matches played and winning Premier League's Player of the Month for September. But Manchester United is in a tough run of form which hopefully picks up as the season progresses.

On the other hand, Juventus struggled heavily to begin the season, only picking up 1 point in their first 3 league matches without Ronaldo. The club since then has fought its way back up the league table, winning its last 4 matches. However, there is still work to be done as they currently rank 7th in the league — which is obviously less than ideal for a club like Juventus.