Real Madrid welcome back Cristiano Ronaldo after an absence of almost two months as they bid to secure their place in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Ronaldo has missed Madrid's last 10 competitive fixtures after suffering an ankle injury during the Champions League match with Marseille on September 30 before then aggravating it while playing for Portugal in their World Cup qualifier against Hungary on October 10.

The world's most expensive player returned to full training on Friday though and, after sitting out Saturday's 1-0 home win over Racing Santander which sent Madrid above Barcelona at the top of the Primera Division, Ronaldo has been included in Manuel Pellegrini's 19-man squad for the home encounter with Zurich.

It remains to be seen how much action Ronaldo will get, if any, but it could be that Pellegrini will want to give the Portugal international at least a few minutes playing time ahead of this weekend's league showdown with Barca at the Nou Camp.

"Cristiano Ronaldo has done well in the last few training sessions, he is in the squad and we will see tomorrow if he plays," said Pellegrini.

With Ronaldo in the team, Madrid won each of their opening seven competitive matches, but since the £80million man was injured they have won only five of 10 outings - although four of those victories have come in their last five games.

Ronaldo also netted nine times in those first seven games, including a brace in a 5-2 away win over Zurich in their opening Champions League outing.

"It's impossible not to miss a player of Cristiano Ronaldo's quality. He is one of the best players in the world, but you cannot depend on one player and the team has responded well in his absence," added Pellegrini, who insists his focus is only on tomorrow's clash and not 'El Clasico' against Barca.

Madrid could secure their place in the next phase of the Champions League if they beat Zurich and AC Milan down Marseille in the night's other Group C match at the San Siro.

The Spanish giants are currently level on seven points with group leaders Milan, while Marseille are a point behind and Zurich prop up the standings with three points.

"We only have one game on our minds, and that's against Zurich, where we will try to qualify for the last 16. Once this game has finished we'll start thinking about the game against Barcelona," said the former Villarreal coach.

Aside from Ronaldo, also back for Madrid are defender Sergio Ramos and midfielder Lassana Diarra, who missed the Racing game through suspension and injury, respectively.

However, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Guti are out through a lack of fitness, while Christoph Metzelder and Fernando Gago have been omitted.

Zurich still have a chance of claiming a top-two finish in Group C, but having lost three of their opening four matches, the Swiss champions are facing an uphill battle.

Coach Bernard Challandes, whose team were beaten 6-1 by Marseille in their last European match, have also struggled domestically and a 1-0 defeat to Luzern earlier this month left them in eighth place in the 10-team Super League

Striker Eric Hassli is expected to be out for another four months with a broken leg.