Cristiano Ronaldo's Manchester United teammate poked fun at him on Instagram after beating him in a training ground exercise

• Cristiano Ronaldo's teammate poked fun at him after beating him in a training ground exercise.
• "Winning team! @cristiano are you ok?," Nemanja Matic wrote on Instagram.

Cristiano Ronaldo is known as one of the most competitive athletes in the world.

So when his Manchester United teammate Nemanja Matic managed to best him in a training ground exercise, Matic was quick to brag about the victory.

United recently returned to training at Carrington following a heavy schedule disruption due to a COVID-19 outbreak, which saw the club's training headquarters closed for 24 hours.

On Thursday, spirits appeared to be high with Matic sharing a photo of him and a number of other players on Instagram celebrating after being on the winning side during a training exercise.

"Winning team! @cristiano are you ok?," the Serbian said alongside a laughing emoji.

Ronaldo's compatriot and United teammate Bruno Fernandes also joined in with poking fun at Ronaldo, commenting on Matic's post.

"SIUUUUUUUUU," he wrote, mocking Ronaldo's famous goal celebration.

United was forced to close its training facilities at the end of last week, with a spike in COVID-19 cases causing its fixtures against Brentford and Brighton to be postponed.

With that outbreak now under control, the club set to play the struggling Newcastle United on Sunday.

The Magpies, which became the richest club in world soccer in October after it was taken over by a Saudi-led consortium, have won just one match all season, and are in real risk of being relegated.

On Friday, however, manager Eddie Howe delivered some good news to Newcastle's fans with regards to the January transfer window, with the club expected to spend big in an attempt to salvage its Premier League status.

"We obviously have players we're looking at and we've identified between myself, the coaching team and recruitment team," he said. "We have a big body of people working on behalf of the football club to try and find a way to strengthen the squad."

Newcastle has been linked with a number of big names in recent months, including FC Barcelona midfielder Philippe Coutinho and Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling.

"The work has been going on all through December and a lot of detail has gone into that process but, as we all know, you can have the most detailed process into the world but if players don't want to come to your team or clubs don't want to sell those players, the challenge of January becomes very difficult," Howe said.

"We're under no illusions, there's no promises made about what we can and can't do but the work is going behind the scenes to try and make that happen."