The fan, whose phone was smashed by Cristiano Ronaldo as he was making his way into the dressing room at Goodison Park, has declined the Manchester United star's offer of attending a game at Old Trafford. The Portuguese forward was seen swiping at something, which eyewitnesses later described as him knocking a fan's mobile phone from his hand. The fan was filming Manchester United players returning to the dressing room and Ronaldo, who appeared to limp a bit, aggressively swiped at the fan's hand, smashing his phone in the process. He later took to social media to issue an apology. Cristiano Ronaldo’s Phone-Breaking Incident Post Manchester United’s Defeat to Everton Being Investigated by Merseyside Police

Sarah Kelly, the young fan's mother, was quoted by Liverpool ECHO, shared that Manchester United contacted her and this has even 'made things worse.' She said, "United have handled it terribly and it's just made things even worse to be honest.  The way I see it is, if someone assaulted him in the street and then asked us to go around for dinner, we wouldn’t. Just because he’s Cristiano Ronaldo, why would we do it? It’s like we owe him a favour, but I’m sorry, we don’t."

"We’ve kindly declined the offer to go to United because Jake doesn’t want to go there and he doesn’t want to see Ronaldo. He’s made that pretty clear. They're not my words, they’re my son’s words. At the end of the day, this is what it’s about. It’s affected him more than it’s affected me, so I have put everything to him to make his own mind up on - he doesn’t want to go to United, he doesn’t want to go to see Ronaldo. All that I’m saying right now is that it’s in the hands of the police," she also added.

A day ago, reports surfaced that Merseyside police have opened an investigation into this matter. Ronaldo was visibly upset after the game which Manchester United lost 1-0 to the home side, Everton. United's hopes of finishing within the Premier League top four is almost over at the moment unless there are some drastic changes on the table. The Red Devils are currently seventh, tied on points with sixth-placed West Ham.  The prospect of Manchester United not competing in the Champions League next season has cast a lot of doubt on Ronaldo staying at the club.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 12, 2022 02:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).