WORLD CUP
Jedinak to miss qualifiers
Australia captain Mile Jedinak is to miss his nation’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Bangladesh and Tajikistan after injuring his hamstring playing for English Premier League side Crystal Palace. Jedinak came off early in the second half of Palace’s 4-1 Capital One Cup win over Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday, with Palace coach Alan Pardew saying his captain could be sidelined for some time. “I am a little bit worried about the skipper, he might have done a hamstring, but we will have to wait and see,” Pardew said. “We think he might have done something a little bit long-term, but we will have to assess him in the morning.” Australia are due to play Group B rivals Bangladesh in Perth, Australia, on Thursday next week then away to Tajikistan on Sept. 8 in the second round of Asian qualifying for Russia 2018. Australia won their opener away to Kyrgyzstan in June and are third in the group behind first-placed Jordan and second-placed Kyrgyzstan.
PREMIER LEAGUE
Stones asks to leave club
Everton defender John Stones has handed in a transfer request in an attempt to persuade his club to sell him to Chelsea, according to reports on Tuesday. Stones is Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho’s top target as he seeks to bolster his defensive options, but Everton have rejected three offers for the England international and he has now taken matters into his own hands. After Chelsea’s latest bid of ￡30 million (US$47 million) was snubbed by the Goodison Park outfit, Stones is widely reported to have formally expressed his desire to leave before training on Tuesday. However, Everton have been resolute in their determination to hang on to the 21-year-old, and manager Roberto Martinez has insisted throughout the saga the defender is not for sale.
PREMIER LEAGUE
Berahino bid rejected
West Bromwich Albion have rejected a second bid from Tottenham Hotspur, reportedly in the region of ￡22 million, for unsettled English striker Saido Berahino, according to a statement on the club’s Web site. West Brom on Tuesday said that they had rejected a written transfer request from the 22-year-old, who manager Tony Pulis dropped for their Premier League match against Chelsea on Sunday, saying he was not in the right frame of mind to play. Berahino was also left out of Pulis’ squad for Tuesday’s Capital One Cup win over Port Vale. “Our position remains unchanged. The sale of this player is not on our agenda,” Baggies’ chairman Jeremy Peace said in a brief statement on the club’s Web site that confirmed the rejection of a second bid from Tottenham.
INTERNATIONALS
Pastore to miss friendlies
French champions Paris Saint-Germain’s Argentina midfielder Javier Pastore is out of his nation’s friendlies with Bolivia and Mexico because of a torn right calf muscle, the Argentinian Football Association said on Tuesday. The 26-year-old — who was a member of the Argentina team that lost to hosts Chile in this year’s Copa America — was forced to go off after just 10 minutes of PSG’s 1-0 win over Montpellier Herault on Friday last week. PSG — who top Ligue 1 with three wins from three matches — did not reveal how long Pastore could be absent for. Argentina are scheduled to play Bolivia on Friday next week in Houston, Texas, and Mexico four days later in Dallas, Texas.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
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