Cristiano Ronaldo has defended his decision NOT to attend Diogo Jota's funeral, after former the Liverpool and Portugal forward died in a horrific car accident back in July.

Jota, who tragically passed away alongside his brother Andre Silva, was on his way to the port city of Santander to catch a ferry back to the UK when the Lamborghini he was travelling in spun off the road and burst into flames near the town of Zamora, Spain, following a tyre blowout.

Just two days after Jota and Silva's death was confirmed, the funeral took place in their hometown of Gondomar, Portugal with several former teammates in attendance. However, there was one notable name not there. Indeed, Ronaldo decided against turning up, despite playing with Jota in the Portugal national team for six years.

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Now, Ronaldo has explained why he didn't attend the funeral. Speaking in an interview with Piers Morgan, he said: "People criticised me a lot, I don't care about that because when you feel free you don't have to worry about what the people say. But one of the things I don't do is, after my father died I have never been to a cemetery again.

"Second, and you know my reputation, wherever I go it's a circus. I didn't go also because if I go the attention goes to me and I don't want this kind of attention.

"I saw, and I'm not criticising it, when you go into a sensitive moment, you do interviews to speak about him and speak about football. Come on guys what is this...

"This shows how secret life is sometimes, I am not part of that. If you want to be part of this world, good luck but I am going to be on the other side. People can continue to criticise me, but I felt good with my decision."

Even though Ronaldo didn't attend Jota's funeral, he paid tribute to the ex-Liverpool man and recalled the moment he found out about his death.

"I was with Geo (Georgina Rodriguez) alone," 40-year-old Ronaldo said. "I was in our period of rest in the gym in the morning. I didn't believe it when they sent me the messages. I cried a lot, Geo can confirm that.

"It was a difficult moment for the country, for the family, for friends, for teammates. It was very sad news."

Jota had been advised not to fly after lung surgery and was planning to sail back to England with his brother. They were heading to Santander, via an overnight stop off in Benavente, and were due to get a ferry back to Portsmouth.

He had had spent time in his homeland after coming on as a substitute in Portugal's penalty shootout victory over Spain in the final of the Nations League on June 8. While there, he married long-term partner and the mother of his three children, Rute Cardoso, in a ceremony in Porto just 11 days before his passing.

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