GOLF
McIlroy pulls out with injury
Rory McIlroy has withdrawn from this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship because of a rib injury. The European Tour on Monday released a statement saying that the second-ranked McIlroy underwent tests after he was injured during the South African Open Championship, which revealed a stress fracture. McIlroy said it was “bitterly disappointing” and “really quite annoying” to miss the tournament, which has the best field of the season on the European Tour. “In situations like this, you simply have to listen to the experts,” he said. The Northern Irishman played with the injury for the final three rounds in Johannesburg, where he lost in a playoff to Graeme Storm.
SOCCER
Sociedad defeat Malaga 2-0
Real Sociedad on Monday scored twice in the second half to beat Malaga 2-0 and move back into the La Liga top five. Inigo Martinez scored in the 50th minute and Juanmi in the 62nd at Estadio La Rosaleda in Malaga, Spain. Real Sociedad, who have won three of their past four league matches, passed Villarreal into fifth place. Malaga are winless in five matches and have lost three in a row, remaining 13th. Malaga’s next match is at league leaders Real Madrid on Saturday. Real Sociedad are to host eighth-placed Celta Vigo on Sunday.
SOCCER
AC Milan rally to tie Torino
AC Milan on Monday battled back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Torino, keeping their bid for Europe alive by moving fifth in the Serie A table. Andrea Belotti had put Torino ahead after 21 minutes with his 14th league goal of the season and Marco Benassi adding a second for the hosts five minutes later. However, 17-year-old Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saved a Adem Ljajic penalty to prevent the hosts from going 3-0 up after just 32 minutes. Once the storm had passed Milan responded positively, with Andrea Bertolacci scoring on 55 minutes and Carlos Bacca slotting in a penalty five minutes later. Milan played the final minutes of the game with 10 men after Alessio Romagnoli was sent off on 88 minutes for a second yellow card. They overtook city rivals Inter, moving into fifth with 37 points, eight points behind leaders Juventus.
SWIMMING
Olympian Wilkie quits club
British swimming Olympian David Wilkie revealed he tore up his health club member’s card after being accused of swimming too fast. The 62-year-old — who won gold in the 200m breaststroke at the 1976 Montreal Olympics — told the Daily Mail that he had been astonished by a lifeguard informing him he was going too fast. “I was just swimming as normal in the pool, doing front crawl, and the lifeguard came up to me and said: ‘I think you banged into somebody.’ I said: ‘It’s the fast lane you know, this is rubbish,’” said Wilkie, who took silver in the 200m breaststroke at the 1972 Munich Olympics. “You go to the pool to swim, not to have lifeguards telling you how to swim.” A spokesperson for the club confirmed that the incident in 2015 had taken place and that Wilkie had resigned as a member. “We take any complaints we receive from our members seriously. We spoke with Mr Wilkie in 2015 to resolve his complaint and we were sorry to see him leave our club.”
SEESAW CONTEST: The Pistons remain top of the Eastern Conference after battling to a win over the Hawks in a game that saw the lead change 27 times The Phoenix Suns on Monday shrugged off an injury to Devin Booker to end the Los Angeles Lakers’ seven-game winning streak with an emphatic 125-108 victory on the road. Booker exited in the first quarter, but the loss of the star point guard did little to halt the flow of Phoenix points over the remainder of the game. Dillon Brooks led the Phoenix scoring with 33 points, while Collin Gillespie added 28 — including eight three-pointers — as the Suns romped to victory. The Lakers were left ruing a colossal 22 turnovers — at a cost of 32 Suns points — on a
New Zealand yesterday reached 231-9 at stumps on a first day of the first Test against the West Indies shortened by rain after Justin Greaves triggered a middle-order collapse with the wicket of Kane Williamson. New Zealand tumbled from 94-1 to 148-6 on a bowler-friendly wicket after Williamson was dismissed for 52, his 38th Test half-century. Michael Bracewell and Nathan Smith arrested the slide with a 52-run stand for the seventh wicket. Smith eventually fell for 23 and Bracewell for 47. After Matt Henry went for 8, Zak Foulkes and Jacob Duffy were both on 4 when bad light stopped play after 70
Robin Smith, the batter who shone for England in a period when it was beaten regularly in Test cricket, has died. He was 62. Smith’s family said in a statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that he died unexpectedly at his home in Perth, Australia, on Monday. No cause was given. He played 62 Tests for England from 1988 to 1996, scoring 4,236 runs at an average of 43.67 with nine centuries. His signature shot was the square cut. Smith also played in 71 one-day internationals and was part of England’s squad who reached the 1992 ICC World Cup final. His unbeaten
SSC Napoli on Sunday joined AC Milan at the top of Serie A after winning 1-0 at title rivals AS Roma, as Inter kept pace with the leading pair by beating Pisa SC 2-0. David Neres stroked home the only goal of a feisty game in the 36th minute at the Stadio Olimpico, ending a blistering counterattack with a calm finish which put Napoli on 28 points. Napoli are behind Milan on goal-difference, and just one point ahead of both Roma and Inter in a tight scudetto battle in which Antonio Conte’s team are to host Juventus at the weekend. “To come to
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