Juventus footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is being investigated by Italian police over an alleged trip taken to celebrate his girlfriend’s birthday.

Ronaldo is being accused of breaking COVID-19 rules by travelling between the regions of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta.

Recently-deleted footage posted on social media showed Ronaldo and his girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez on a snowmobile in a mountain resort, the same day she turned 27-years-old.

Italy is currently seeing hundreds of deaths and thousands of infections daily, and the country was hit hard in the early stages of the pandemic last year.

They are also in a political crisis after struggling to bring down cases in a second wave.

Valle d’Aosta police stated that they are investigating the couple over the alleged trip to the Courmayeur ski resort.

Under current rules in Italy, travel between COVID “orange zones” is forbidden unless for work reasons or for travelling to a second home.

According to BBC Sport, there were reports across Italian media alleging the pair traveled on Tuesday and stayed overnight in a resort hotel before returning to Turin, the home of Ronaldo’s Serie A Club, on Wednesday.

The controversy comes months after Ronaldo himself got Covid-19, and was criticized by Italy’s minister Vincenzo Spadafora for travelling to Portugal for international duty shortly before he tested positive.

He labeled Ronaldo “arrogant” and “disrespectful” and accused him of violating COVID-19 protocol by leaving his team’s bubble to travel after they reported infections.

Ronaldo denied wrongdoing.