Football
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| Gareth Southgate - England Caretaker Manager |
Gareth Southgate takes charge
of England for the first time on Saturday when his side play Malta at home.
Three days later England travel to Slovenia for another World Cup qualifier.
Andros Townsend has been recalled to the England squad, and Burnley defender
Michael Keane and Manchester United’s Jesse Lingaard are called up for the first
time.
Wales play Austria away and
then Moldova at home, and will again be without the injured Aaron Ramsey.
Scotland comprehensively beat
Malta in their opening group match, and with matches against Lithuania (home)
and Slovakia (away) will be confident of getting more points on the board. Alan
Hutton is injured, but otherwise Gordon Strachan has the same players available
as he did for the Malta match.
Northern Ireland face two
very different matches – a home encounter with minnows San Marino and then a
trip to face world champions Germany. It is in this second match that Northern
Ireland may miss the injured Craig Cathcart and Liam Boyce, as well as Will
Grigg, who is absent for personal reasons.
Ireland must tackle Georgia
at home and then Moldova away without a number of injured players. Daryl Murphy,
Stephen Quinn, Keiren Westwood, Kevin Doyle, Aiden McGeady, Anthony Pilkington,
Marc Wilson and possibly Harry Arter will all miss the games.
Francesco Guidolin has become
the first Premier League managerial casualty of the season. With Swansea City
struggling in 17th place, the club’s new American owners have opted
to replace the Italian with their compatriot Bob Bradley, who now becomes the
first American coach in top-flight English football. Bradley has enjoyed some
success with the USA national team but has little experience of top-level club
management, and was in charge at French second division side Le Havre when he
got the call from Swansea.
Two German clubs
comprehensively outclassed the British representatives in the Women’s Champions
League. Chelsea lost 3-0 at home to Wolfsburg in the first leg of their round
of 32 encounter, while Hibernian were thumped 6-0 by Bayern Munich.
Rugby Union
Wales are facing the prospect
of being without their captain, Sam Warburton, for at least part of November’s
international series, after he fractured his cheekbone while playing for
Cardiff Blues last weekend.
Sam Jones, newly called up to
the England squad, will definitely not be able to take his place in the
international series. The Wasps flanker broke his leg during a squad judo
training session.
Boxing
Tyson Fury has admitted to
taking cocaine to try and deal with his problems with depression. The British
boxer, currently the WBA and WBO world heavyweight champion, is almost certain
to be stripped of his titles after twice pulling out of a re-match with Wladimir Klitschko. Fury recently claimed to have retired from boxing on
social media, before appearing to retract his statement just three hours later.
Scottish boxer Mike Towell
has died after suffering brain injuries in a British title eliminator fight at
the weekend. His girlfriend later mentioned that he had been suffering from
unexplained headaches for several weeks previously.
Tennis
Britain’s top two men’s
tennis players, Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund, will meet in the quarter finals of
the China Open.
Britain’s number one female
player, Johanna Konta, is through to the third round of the women’s singles at
the same tournament.
Cricket
The England & Wales
Cricket Board have imposed a series of draconian penalties on Durham, after the
North East county were forced to accept a £4.8 million assistance package from
the Board. Not only have Durham been relegated to division two of the County
Championship, but they will also start the next Championship season on minus 48
points, the T20 Blast competition on minus four and the One Day Cup on minus
two. Their Chester-le-Street headquarters has also been removed indefinitely
from the list of England’s Test Match grounds. Hampshire, who finished second
bottom in Division One of the Championship, will not now be relegated as a
result.
80 not out from Jos Butler
and 70 from Moeen Ali took England to a four-wicket win over a Bangladesh
Cricket Board Select XI. The one-day international series between England and
Bangladesh commences in Dhaka on Friday, and Ben Duckett is the only newcomer
in the England squad. England do of course have a powerful and exciting young
ODI team, but captain Eoin Morgan and big-hitting opener Alex Hales have opted
not to tour. Can the team fire on all cylinders after having played just one
warm-up match since arriving in Bangladesh?
England Women’s five-match
one-day international series against the West Indies will go ahead as planned,
starting on Saturday, after Hurricane Matthew missed Jamaica. There are no new
players in the squad although Beth Langston and Sophie Ecclestone – capped in
T20 internationals previously – could make their ODI debuts.
Tipster Street.
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