SOCCER
Injury costs rise
Injuries across Europe’s top five leagues rose by 20 percent in the 2021-2022 season, according to a study published on Wednesday. The study by insurance brokers Howden found that clubs paid a record-high price for injuries of £513 million (US$560 million) last season. Injury cost was calculated by multiplying the cost per day of a player by the number of days they were unavailable because of an injury. World players’ union FIFPRO has said that structures must be put in place to limit player workloads. The Premier League had the highest injury cost of any of the top five divisions at nearly £185 million, with La Liga in Spain a distant second on £109 million.
SOCCER
Hitches mar women’s game
Arsenal’s progress to the group stage of the Women’s Champions League did not come without a couple of bizarre hitches. The team advanced by beating Ajax 1-0 on Wednesday for a 3-2 aggregate victory, but only after pre-match shenanigans that saw the goalposts needing to be adjusted because they were too short and a late-game incident when Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall said he was incorrectly told he could make a concussion substitution. “It’s been a very weird experience being here,” Eidevall said. Staff brought out a ladder and were seen changing the height of the goal frame before kickoff after Arsenal officials made it known the crossbar was 10cm too low, British media reported. The crossbar was measured again at halftime. “Playing against a big club like Ajax where we had to measure the goals before the start of the game ... I have never experienced anything like it,” Eidevall said. The Swedish coach also said that he was told by the fourth official that he could replace Beth Mead with a concussion substitute after she needed to be taken off following a clash of heads. “We were preparing Lina Hurtig [to come on as a substitute], then when we are going to do it she [the fourth official] says no,” Eidevall said. “We were getting her ready for two or three minutes. We would have spent that time speaking to the players about how we could defend with 10 players. That misinformation from the referee. I honestly don’t know why and how that could be. It’s such a simple question to answer yes or no.” There are no concussion substitutions in UEFA-organized competitions.
RUGBY UNION
Tupaea out for nine months
New Zealand center Quinn Tupaea faces nine months out of the game due to a knee injury he sustained during a clear-out by Australia’s Darcy Swain in Melbourne earlier this month. The team yesterday said that further scans on the anterior cruciate ligament injury revealed “more extensive damage” that would require surgery, extending Tupaea’s period on the sidelines by six months. The 23-year-old Waikato Chiefs midfielder will now miss the entirety of next year’s Super Rugby season and could face a challenging time getting back into All Blacks reckoning in time for the World Cup in France. Swain was shown a yellow card for clattering into Tupaea’s extended leg and later cited after officials said the incident met the red-card threshold. The lock was suspended for six weeks, but will miss only three Tests after his inclusion in an Australia A side for a tour of Japan.
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