Cristiano Ronaldo all smiles in Portugal training as he laughs with team-mates before World Cup tie

Cristiano Ronaldo has been pictured smiling broadly in Portugal training ahead of Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final against Morocco. 

He has consistently attracted negative headlines at the tournament, with revelations the veteran is causing friction in the team camp and the high-profile forward denying reports he wanted to walk out on the competition after being dropped.

But former Manchester United star Ronaldo, 37, was all smiles on Friday, laughing and joking with his team-mates as they prepared for the weekend’s crunch knockout clash.

The veteran, 37, denied reports that he threatened to quit the World Cup after being dropped

But an apparently relaxed Ronaldo laughed and joked with team-mates (pictured) ahead of Saturday’s crunch quarter-final tie against African side Morocco, who beat Spain in the last 16

After starting the first three group-stage matches, scoring just once – a penalty he dived to win against Ghana – he was finally dropped by manager Fernando Santos for Goncalo Ramos, who scored a hat-trick in the 6-1 last-16 win against Switzerland.

In the aftermath, Ronaldo sulked and walked off on his own, with a staggering 93.6 per cent of Portugal fans voting for the forward to be benched and for Ramos to start up front against Morocco instead.

And reports claimed the free agent wanted to pack his bags and walk out after tense talks with Santos – although the Portuguese FA insisted the captain is still ‘committed’ to the cause.

Cristiano Ronaldo (pictured in training on Thursday) furiously denied reports he wanted to quit the squad after being dropped, saying Portugal are ‘too strong to be broken by outside forces’

Ronaldo and manager Fernando Santos (left) have endured a tense relationship in Qatar and reportedly held testy and heated talks where the ex-Man United star threatened to fly home 

In response, Ronaldo tweeted: ‘A group too close to be broken by…