Tensions between Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Barcelona have been resolved, but Joan Garcia is still unsure if he will be registered on time for La Liga.
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Dane Vilas leads the way in fine fielding effort but Leicestershire escape with point
ECB Reporters Network29-Aug-2020Rain forced the match to be abandoned with the points shared after Lancashire had restricted Leicestershire to 150-9 in the North Group Vitality Blast match at Grace Road.It was particularly frustrating for the visitors, who played some fine out-cricket after captain Dane Vilas won the toss and put the Foxes in.Vilas himself led the way with a hat-trick of catches, including a brilliant one-handed effort leaping backwards to dismiss Leicestershire danger man Arron Lilley, and a diving two-handed take after a sprint along along the boundary from long-off to end Ben Mike’s innings and secure Lightning seamer Tom Bailey his best T20 return of 5-17. Lancashire had arrived at Grace Road with confidence taken from the manner in which they beat Durham by a comfortable 27 runs on Thursday. Understandably, they made no changes to the side which started at the Emirates Riverside, 22-year-old left-arm spinner Tom Hartley retaining his place, while Leicestershire gave T20 county debuts to Tom Taylor, George Rhodes and Ireland international Gareth Delany, signed at short notice last week after it was confirmed South African batsman Janneman Malan would be unable to travel due to pandemic restrictions.Delany, opening the innings, did not last long, losing his off stump to Bailey in the second over, but Lilley hit both Hartley and Liam Hurt for straight sixes in going to 26 before Vilas’ athletic leap as he tried to chip a Danny Lamb full-toss over mid-on brought his downfall.It set a pattern for the innings. In the 12th over Bailey took an equally brilliant catch, one-handed low to his left at extra cover, to catch Rhodes off Hurt, and wickets continued to fall as Leicestershire tried to pick up the scoring rate, though Mike hit Lamb for consecutive sixes in the penultimate over.The rain had already begun to fall, however, and after 90 minutes umpires Nick Cook and Rob White decided there was no prospect of play resuming.”I’ve not played white ball cricket in three years, and I didn’t think I was going to play this year either, so it’s nice to have an opportunity and I’ve taken it with both hands,” Bailey said. “We’re such a strong white ball side it’s always going to be tough to get in and I’ve had to wait in the wings.”We were good in the field in our first game but we fielded so well today as a group. My catch was an absolute worldie – I’ll never take one like that again. It was the highlight of my day, better than taking five wickets. And for a 35-year-old [Vilas] to throw himself around the field like that, it’s great to see.”Leicestershire captain Colin Ackermann said: “You want to get on a roll in this format, especially when there’s only ten games, so to lose the first two to the weather is frustrating. Saying that, I thought we were about 15 runs short. They were exceptional in the field and took four outstanding catches and saved 20 runs.”It’s our first chance to bat in the comp, we’ll learn from that display and come back strong against Durham at Headingley on Monday.”
Former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey has been granted bail after appearing in Westminster Magistrates' Court on charges of rape and sexual assault.
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Rangers have been dealt a blow as it has emerged that one star could find himself sidelined for longer than initially feared.
Though currently second in the Scottish Premiership, Rangers' fate remains in their own hands. They sit a point behind Glasgow rivals Celtic, but have a game in hand on the hoops after their game against Dundee was postponed.
Alex Neil says Rangers have "one of the best" defensive talents he's seen
He’s been full of high praise for one man in particular.
By
Ben Browning
Mar 27, 2024
They also play host to Brendan Rodgers and Co in a game which will likely prove decisive. It could cap an impressive campaign for Philippe Clement's side, who boast the best defence in the division and have seen their goal breached on just 16 occasions to date, while they have scored the second most goals in the division (64), behind only Celtic (71).
The latest news, however, is less than ideal for the Ibrox outfit.
Despite their impressive season, it has not been all rosy for Clement and co. They have suffered their fair share of injuries, and they may now have been dealt yet another blow on that front.
That comes as an update has been provided on Ross McCausland, who was taken off after just 35 minutes in their most recent Scottish Premiership outing, the 2-1 defeat to Motherwell. He was on the substitutes bench against Benfica, suggesting that it wasn't too severe, but never made it onto the pitch.
Though initially described as a knock, he missed both of Northern Ireland's matches over the international break and his injury was described as 'complex' by national team boss Michael O'Neill, which will have set off alarm bells at Ibrox.
|
McCausland in the SPL 2023/24 |
|
|
Appearances |
22 |
|
Goals |
1 |
|
Assists |
2 |
|
Shots per 90 |
1.78 |
|
Tackles and interceptions |
1.93 |
Medical expert Dr Rajpal Brar has now claimed that the complication could see McCausland miss several weeks.
“Initially, he was potentially available for the next match and the injury was described as a knock, so at the time, the injury didn’t seem too serious", he told Ibrox news.
“The main goal of treatment then will have been reducing pain and dysfunction to allow him to return to training. However, there has been a development over it being a complex issue and that puts him at risk of something more serious. There are not too many specifics provided, but this appears something that can keep him out for weeks.“
Rangers are already without a host of stars thanks to injury layoffs, with Rabbi Matondo, Kieran Dowell and Danilo all sidelined. They will be hoping that McCausland's recovery is swift, and that he can still play a meaningful part in the Scottish Premiership run-in and help Rangers lift another title.
Stand of 139 for the sixth wicket sees England claim fighting win to go 1-0 up in the series
The Report by Valkerie Baynes08-Aug-2020A fighting century stand between Chris Woakes and Jos Buttler carried England to a stunning three-wicket victory over Pakistan in a thrilling opening match of their three-Test series.Buttler’s gutsy knock of 75 from 101 balls in the face of mounting criticism over his place in the side, combined with Woakes’ new-found form with the bat, handed England an unlikely victory and broke their run of five consecutive series in which they had lost the first match.ALSO READ: Dobell: England are lucky to have WoakesUnder pressure to make runs after his Test average had dipped and a torrid time behind the stumps during this match, Buttler came in with England 106 for 4 chasing a target of 277 for victory.He and Woakes, who had a high score of 37 not out from his previous 17 innings, shared a partnership worth 139 for the sixth wicket and helped England pull off the second-highest fourth-innings run chase at Old Trafford.Fittingly, Woakes hit the winnings runs with a four through third man off Shaheen Shah Afridi to finish not out on 84 as England snatched victory by three wickets inside four days.Joe Root began the day suggesting a target below 260 would be within reach. Pakistan pushed it just beyond after Yasir Shah came out, as expected, and threw the bat.Yasir resumed on 12 with Pakistan 137 for 8 and leading by 244. He clubbed 21 from nine balls, including 11 off Jofra Archer’s first four deliveries of the day, followed by a defiant four past mid-on and a brutal six over midwicket off Stuart Broad’s first three.Broad had the final say two balls later, drawing a wild swing from Yasir to a length ball outside off and finding a thick edge which went through to Buttler behind the stumps. But Yasir’s job was done.In all, Pakistan pilfered 32 runs within the first half hour, before Naseem Shah was the last man out, bowled by Archer for 4.England managed just 22 runs from the first 11 overs of their chase but, with the best part of two days ahead of them, time was the least of their worries.Wickets were, and Mohammad Abbas took the first with the first ball of the 12th, which nipped back and struck Rory Burns on the back leg as it curled in off the seam. Burns was quick to call for a review, but his dismissal was confirmed on umpire’s call with the ball hitting the top of middle stump.There appeared to be words exchanged, with Burns turning to the Pakistan team and putting a finger to his lips as he strode from the field.Chris Woakes celebrates the moment of victory•AFP
Dom Sibley and Root pressed on to 55 for 1 by lunch but there was a period after the break where England’s scoring went quiet against Abbas and Yasir and they managed just two runs in 29 balls.Yasir, who had claimed four England wickets in their first innings, broke a 64-run partnership when he had Sibley caught by Asad Shafiq for 36, the opener furious with himself after attempting a drive and sending a thick edge straight to slip.His dismissal brought Ben Stokes – and all his promise – to the crease and England’s own “miracle worker” got off the mark with a boundary through third man off Naseem. Crucially, though, Naseem swooped quickly to remove the other set batsman, when he found Root’s outside edge, which was collected by Babar Azam at slip to send him out on 42.With England 96 for 3 and needing 181 runs more to win, the glare on Stokes intensified, even though they also had Ollie Pope, who had top-scored for the hosts in their first innings, at the crease.If any indication was needed as to just how highly prized Stokes’ wicket is, Pakistan burned an ambitious review when Naseem struck him on the pad with a ball that looked to be going down the leg side. Sure enough Hawk-Eye showed it was missing and Stokes survived.To Pakistan captain Azhar Ali’s credit, however, faced with the prospect of using up another review seven balls later, when Yasir believed he had Stokes caught behind with a googly that bounced out of the rough outside off stump, Azhar went for it. His courage was rewarded when UltraEdge showed the ball had brushed the glove on the way through to Mohammad Rizwan, who gathered the ball high at his second grab.England had lost 3 for 20 and their situation worsened three overs later. Pope could do little about his dismissal when he copped an unplayable delivery from Afridi that reared off a length and hit his top hand, ballooning to Shadab Khan running in from gully.With England 117 for 5 and hope fading fast, still 160 runs from victory, Buttler and Woakes played a stunning hand that rescued their side.With Buttler’s white-ball credentials in no question, he combined the skill to rack up the runs at a good tempo with the patience required to not throw his wicket away. Even when he did fall, attempting a reverse sweep off Yasir and struck on the boot for an lbw decison he challenged and lost, Woakes was well set and the hard work was done.Needing 21 more runs, England promoted Broad, and although he fell cheaply, lbw to Yasir with the second new ball, Woakes saw them home to end a miserable run in first Tests (aside from a one-off win over Ireland) that stretched back to the start of 2019.
Coach urges players to guard against complacency as Windies target rare overseas series win
Andrew Miller14-Jul-2020Phil Simmons, West Indies’ coach, has challenged his players to consign the events of the first Test at the Ageas Bowl to “history”, as they look to guard against complacency and close out their first overseas series win against a leading Test nation in more than a quarter of a century.Speaking after his team’s return to Emirates Old Trafford ahead of Thursday’s Test, Simmons praised the resolve of his players in Sunday’s four-wicket win in Southampton – in particular Jermaine Blackwood for his decisive 95 on the final day of the contest, and Shannon Gabriel, whose haul of nine wickets across the two innings demonstrated his return to full fitness following ankle surgery.The result means that West Indies have now won four of last six Tests against England – dating back to their famous run-chase at Headingley in 2017, and encompassing their 2-1 series win in the Caribbean in early 2019. However, they have not won a series in England since 1988, and Simmons acknowledged that it would be their duty to start from scratch in the coming days.”For me it was a great win because I think that it signified a lot of hard work being done by the players over the last four or five weeks,” he said. “But you don’t come to England and just win a Test match. It was a top-class Test match, with good cricket played by both teams, and even coming down to the last hour, it could have gone either way.”To come out on top. It’s been great for us, and it was important because you don’t want to have to chase England in England. So the chasing is from their point of view now. But you guard against complacency by just trying to do the same things you did before the first Test. Right now that Test match is history. We’ve got to be thinking about what we do from Thursday to Monday.”West Indies successfully backed up their first-Test victory in Barbados last year with an equally impressive win in Antigua, but the challenge of replicating that form in an overseas campaign is rather harder.Leaving aside their tours of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, they have only taken the lead in the first Test of an away series on three occasions since 1995. In that year’s tour of England, they were pegged back to a 2-2 draw after a crushing win at Headingley, and were then overturned 3-1 on their next visit to England in 2000, and 2-1 in South Africa in 2007-08.ALSO READ: ‘When he crosses the line he gives his all’ – Holder on BlackwoodHowever, the circumstances of the current England tour are different in a number of key respects – firstly, the absence of a home crowd, which England arguably noticed during a flat day in the field in West Indies’ first innings, but perhaps more significantly, the extended preparation period, which may have been forced on the tourists by the Covid-19 outbreak, but which Simmons said harked back to his own playing days in the 1980s and 1990s.”I think that has been the biggest influence on the performance,” he said. “I think the fact that we’ve been here for that period of time, we’ve had quality bowling in the nets because we’ve had nearly 11 seamers here, you can’t put a price on that.”I think that’s something that we have to look at. I don’t like to go back into my [playing] days, but we would come to England and play something like three or four proper warm-up games before the first Test, and we would also have three-day or four-day games in between the Test matches. So I think that period of training goes a long way to how we performed in that first Test.”One of the key beneficiaries of the lead-up time was Gabriel, who had not originally been named in West Indies’ first-choice 14, but was added to the squad after proving his fitness in both the nets and the intra-squad contests at Old Trafford. His hostility in both England innings echoed his crucial contributions to the win in the Caribbean last year, and Simmons took particular pleasure in his two-wicket burst on the pivotal fourth evening of the match.”The hardest time for bowlers, after bowling from the morning, is that last session,” Simmons said. “To see him and Alzarri [Joseph] come up trumps in that session is so pleasing to us. With him coming back from that ankle surgery and working as hard he has worked since we’ve been here, it was a joy to see him successful in that period.”Blackwood also proved his mettle, and not for the first time against England, against whom he now averages 55.00 in seven Tests. He withstood intense pressure on the final day – both from the scoreboard, which read 27 for 3 with John Campbell retired hurt, and from England’s fielders, with Ben Stokes in his ear from the outset as they attempted to goad him into a rush of blood.”I think he must be commended because he has worked very hard on trying to get that temperament right for each part of his innings,” Simmons said. “As we saw in the first innings, it was still there a bit, but in the second he controlled it a lot better. And that helped him to bring home the game for us.”Blackwood himself conceded that England’s words were “nothing bad, just cricket” and Simmons accepted that it was all part and parcel of the Test match battle.”It’s what I would have done too,” he said. “Try to get him irrational, but I think he held his own. He looked at the situation and played it as well as he could have. So that shows that his mindset is improving, and that’s all you can ask for.”
Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins has withdrawn from the England squad after picking up a injury ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Andorra.
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Newcastle United have endured their fair share of injuries this season, with Eddie Howe patching together his squad throughout the campaign. The former boss has at least received a major boost on that front, however, with one star set to return earlier than expected.
The Magpies are already without the likes of Nick Pope, Joelinton and Kieran Trippier as the Premier League season approaches its final stages. And those injury problems have far from helped Newcastle's form, with their European ambitions becoming more and more unlikely every week, especially after their latest defeat against Chelsea.
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Newcastle injury list |
Potential Return Date (via Premier Injuries) |
|---|---|
|
Sandro Tonali (suspended) |
31/08/2024 |
|
Callum Wilson |
11/05/2024 |
|
Joelinton |
11/05/2024 |
|
Nick Pope |
03/04/2024 |
|
Kieran Trippier |
30/03/2024 |
|
Harvey Barnes |
30/03/2024 |
|
Dan Burn |
16/03/2024 |
With two wins in their last six games and mounting injury problems, Newcastle have been left with it all to do if they are to qualify for some form of European football this season. As their Stamford Bridge defeat showed, however, Howe's task is a difficult one in the coming months and one that could have so easily been worsened by further injury news.
Newcastle could sell a player who's earning 9x more than Lewis Miley
The experienced Toon star needs to be moved on this year.
By
Jack Salveson Holmes
Mar 13, 2024
The Magpies boss initially shared concerns over the extent of Anthony Gordon's injury against Chelsea, saying via Premier Injuries: "Gordon looks like a knee problem and it doesn’t look too good at the moment; it is unclear. Hopefully, we can give him that in the next couple of days, and we can get him seen to."
Since then, those fears have fortunately been eased to finally hand Howe some positive news. According to Jacob Whitehead of The Athletic, Gordon has avoided any serious damage to his knee and could even be back for the Manchester City game as soon as this weekend. Even if it's not the City game, the Newcastle star will reportedly be available for England selection in the upcoming international break.
In a season to forget, Gordon has been one of the few bright sparks at St James' Park, fully living up to his £40m price tag and £60k per-week salary, which initially raised eyebrows. If the 23-year-old makes his return as soon as the City game, then Newcastle will stand a far greater chance of causing an upset in the FA Cup last eight and making an appearance at Wembley to help salvage their campaign.
Former manager Frank Lampard was well aware of Gordon's quality even during his Everton days, saying after the winger's goal against Brentford in 2022: “It’s what I wanted from him. It was a great run, great timing and a great pass, and his composure was great. I’m delighted for him and thought his all-round performance was great. There’s pressure on him and I thought he handled it brilliantly.”
With ten goals and seven assists to his name so far this season, Gordon has done enough to be considered for a spot in Gareth Southgate's England squad, signalling even more relief that his injury is not as severe as first feared.
Leandro Trossard has been left fuming after learning his EA FC 25 rating as he believes many of the stats "should have been much higher."
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BBC Radio 5 Live pundit Alan Hutton is under the belief that Tottenham "will have always been in contact" about signing a speedy player for 2024/2025.
As reliably reported, a position which Spurs are eager to strengthen this summer is out wide.
Tottenham laying groundwork to sign marquee striker with Paratici contacts
The Italian advises Spurs on a consultancy basis.
By
Emilio Galantini
Mar 6, 2024
Despite the presence of Timo Werner, Bryan Gil, Dejan Kulusevski, Son Heung-min and Manor Solomon in their squad already, it is believed Tottenham are admirers of both Wolves star Pedro Neto and Eberechi Eze of Crystal Palace heading into the summer.
Manager Ange Postecoglou doesn't appear to favour Gil in his starting line up, leading to rumours that the Spaniard could in fact leave N17 this summer, while the consistently-injured Manor Solomon could quit Spurs if they end up bringing in two wingers (Dan Kilpatrick).
This would free up space for a new wide attacker for next term, and a decision must also be made on the long-term future of Werner.
|
Timo Werner's best games for Tottenham so far |
Match Rating (via WhoScored) |
|---|---|
|
Spurs 3-1 Crystal Palace |
7.68 |
|
Spurs 3-2 Brentford |
7.36 |
|
Spurs 2-1 Brighton |
6.91 |
|
Spurs 1-2 Wolves |
6.66 |
|
Man United 2-2 Spurs |
6.64 |
The German, signed on loan from RB Leipzig in the winter transfer window, bagged his first Spurs goal against Crystal Palace last weekend and has registered a further two assists so far during his time at N17.
His deal is thought to contain a £15 million buy-option, something which may well entice the wider Tottenham recruitment team if Werner can display the kind of form which motivated Chelsea to splash £47.5m on him in 2020.
Now, speaking to Tottenham News, former Lilywhites defender Hutton has suggested that Spurs will always have been in contact over signing Werner permanently for 24/25.
“I think they will have always been in contact about it,” said Hutton.
“I don’t think that will change between now and the end of the season, they will always be monitoring that situation. It always goes back to the same thing for me, he needs more than one opportunity to score a goal.
"You see Eze, fantastic free-kick but before that Werner has a great opportunity one-on-one with the goalkeeper and he shows amazing speed and that’s what he’s all about getting into position.
“Sometimes I just think when he has too long to think about it, I never feel confident that he’ll score. If that was Son, I’d put him down to score. But he got his goal and he’s off the mark. Well done, it’s good for him and good for the club, but I think they’ll be monitoring the situation from now until the end of the season to see if he’s a guy that can fit in long-term or not. Then they’ll have to make the decision."