Cristiano Ronaldo’s substitution at Real Madrid has become a soap opera between the star and Zinedine Zidane… but with just one goal this season, what is going on with the Bernabeu’s favourite son?

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Nothing summed up the soap opera of Zinedine Zidane replacing Cristiano Ronaldo with 20 minutes left on Saturday better than the faces of Isco and James Rodriguez warming up on the touchline.

The two were captured by the cameras of Cuatro – Rodriguez looked across to the technical area and spotted that Ronaldo’s number was about to be raised. When he tipped off his team-mate, Isco pulled a face that said: ‘He’s not gonna like that’.

And he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit. 

Cristiano Ronaldo's substitution for Real Madrid has turned into a soap opera in Spain

Ronaldo didn't like being replaced in Madrid's disappointing draw away to Las Palmas

The faces of Isco (right) and James Rodriguez said everything as Ronaldo was taken off

Cuatro got the lip-readers to work on the mumbled curse words that came forth as he accepted Zidane’s outstretched hand but never looked at him; then blanked matchday delegate Javi Col as he told Ronaldo to stay calm; and then took his place on the bench.

‘Foda-se’ was the key phrase used, a sort of ‘f*** you’ in his native Portuguese. There was also a ‘m***** f*****’ in there somewhere too. 

On Monday Cuatro had found another camera angle and evidently an even better lipreader claiming Ronaldo also said: 'I did everything for the 2-1, f*** you! 20 minutes! 20 minutes!'

It was a reference to the playing time denied him and to what he clearly thought of his contribution to the scoreline before he went off. 

He didn’t seem to know what face to pull when Real Madrid conceded late on to draw a game they should have won. 

You can't help thinking his first thought was: 'That wouldn't have happened if I had still been on the pitch'. 

It's impossible to underestimate the massive ego, the huge self-belief, the extraordinary desire to win at everything - even the competition: who's played the most minutes.

‘He played well as always,’ said Zidane after the game. ‘On Tuesday we have a game in Dortmund and that is why I took him off.' 

Ronaldo played 90 minutes of every game last season and every substitution before in his Real Madrid career has always been because the player has been carrying a knock. 

This is new ground for Zidane. The Catalan press were pushing the idea on Monday that it is also very shaky ground. Sport’s front page screamed of a permanent split, a messy divorce – Jose Mourinho dropping Wayne Rooney meets Angelina Jolie cutting up Brad Pitt’s suits and throwing them out of the window.

Ronaldo reacts after being taken off, the first time he's been replaced for tactical reasons

Ronaldo has dominated the press in the last few days with talk of a divide with his manager

The reality is a lot less dramatic. In part because when Diario AS polled fans on Sunday 84 per cent of the 8,000 who responded said Zidane made the right decision to take Ronaldo off – and that's despite the fact Real Madrid ended up drawing the game.

Ronaldo had not played well. Zidane’s suggestion that he had did not ring true. He has not started the season well. He has only scored once so far in the league – that has never happened before. A goal against his former club Sporting in the Champions League makes it two but he was subdued on Saturday against Las Palmas.

That doesn’t mean this is the beginning of the end. The slow start can be justified by the knee injury he picked up at the Euros and the way it has back-tracked his whole pre-season. But that knee injury in turn justifies only playing him for 70 minutes on Saturday. 

His desire to play every second of every game is making him more susceptible to end of season injuries. The left knee still needs to be looked after if he is to finish this season strongly. Ronaldo will be thanking Zidane for his caution if he’s flying at the end of the campaign and that enables him to win a fourth Champions League.

Real star Ronaldo has started the season slowly following his knee injury suffered at Euro 2016

The Portuguese skipper has scored just two goals so far this season and only one in the league

Insiders at Real Madrid say there is no rift between the manager and the player and for all the histrionics leaving the pitch after 72 minutes, Ronaldo has taken on board the idea that this season he is going to be 'protected'.

Madrid can afford to do it with substitutes of the quality of Lucas Vazquez and the sniggering pair Isco and Rodriguez.

Ronaldo has just been renewed by Nike until 2021 and all indications are that Madrid are about to mirror that extended commitment by offering Ronaldo a new contract that will also keep him at the club for the next five years. He will be 36 if he completes but he has been told – and he has accepted – that he needs to ease the throttle back if he is to ensure there is no burn-out long before then.

On Tuesday night he goes in search of his 95th Champions League goal - more than ever the Champions League is going to be his competition at Madrid - as the squad's lesser lights are given greater responsibility in league games.

On Tuesday night Ronaldo goes in search of what would be his 95th Champions League goal

Ronaldo and Real jet off for their European clash with German side Borussia Dortmund

It might be a feature of Ronaldo’s autumn years that he does start seasons slower. 

He failed to score in 10 of the first 16 matches of last season and only the fact that he scored five goals in one game against Espanyol and three against Shakhtar meant nobody really noticed.

He still finished the season as top scorer in the Champions League, and with a winners medal round his neck. 

Zidane will have told him he wants the same from him this season but the price that will need to be paid is that – sulk or no sulk – he will have to get used to being substituted from time to time just like everyone else.