CRISTIANO RONALDO has taken to social media after his side's nightmare opening day defeat.

Manchester United fell 2-1 to Brighton after a sorry showing at Old Trafford.

Ronaldo, 37, started on the bench after a summer that saw him skip the Red Devils' pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia as he tried desperately to leave – although officially it was for "family reasons".

It took just 53 minutes for Erik ten Hag to call upon him, however, as his side found themselves 2-0 down to the Seagulls.

United managed to pull a goal back, but Ronaldo failed to make the desired impact in his cameo.

The Portuguese has taken to social media to try and illustrate the effort he's putting in.

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He posted a picture of himself sprinting in United training.

The image was captioned: "Hard work always pays off 🙏🏽💪🏽."

Further pictures showed Ronaldo beating his younger team-mates in a sprint.

The former Real Madrid star enraged boss Ten Hag by leaving United's friendly with Rayo Vallecano ten minutes early.

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Despite Anthony Martial's injury, CR7 was still left on the bench at the weekend.

United missed out on striker target Benjamin Sesko to RB Leipzig.

They have now been linked with former Chelsea ace Alvaro Morata.

The Atletico Madrid star played with Ronaldo at Juventus.

United are also chasing a new midfielder, after giving up on Barcelona star Frenkie de Jong.

The Red Devils have had a £15m bid accepted for alternate target Adrien Rabiot, although the Frenchman is reportedly demanding more than £160,000 a week to join.

United are next in action on Saturday when they travel to Brentford.

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