Fabio Capello has called up Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor for England’s final two World Cup qualifiers against Ukraine and Belarus, but there is no place for Arsenal’s Theo Walcott.
Walcott scored in Arsenal’s 6-2 win over against Blackburn on his return to action on Sunday after several weeks out with a back problem.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger claimed he would have no problem if the winger was named into Capello’s squad for the matches against the Ukraine on Saturday and Belarus at Wembley the following Wednesday.
CAUTIOUS
But Capello has adopted a cautious approach and decided against drafting the 20-year-old into his squad for the first time this season, even though England have already booked their place at next year’s finals in South Africa.
Capello has opted against experimenting with his squad in two relatively meaningless matches. Jermain Defoe and Ben Foster’s absences have been put down to injury, a hand problem in the case of the Tottenham striker, with Manchester United’s goalkeeper ruled out with an unspecified problem.
IMPRESSIVE RUN
Agbonlahor is recalled as Defoe’s replacement after an impressive run for Villa, while veteran Portsmouth goalkeeper David James is back in place of Foster.
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand is also restored to the squad following injury problems.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but