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Juventus have suffered a fresh injury blow as Andrea Pirlo has revealed Cristiano Ronaldo will not be in the squad for their Serie A clash with Atalanta on Sunday. The Juventus head coach claimed Cristiano Ronaldo picked up a thigh flexor problem in the 3-1 win over Genoa last time out and had been unable to train normally since then. In a bid to avoid the injury from becoming severe, Juventus have now opted to play safe by resting the 36-year-old superstar. Speaking in a pre-game interview, Pirlo

Seven-time All-Star NBA LaMarcus Aldridge has retired from basketball abruptly after he suffered an irregular heartbeat during the Brooklyn Nets' loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday, April 10.The 35-year-old announced his decision on social media, saying: "My last game, I played while dealing with an irregular heartbeat. Later on that night, my rhythm got even worse which really worried me even more."Detailing the support he received from teammates to get to the hospital for a health check, the 15-year NBA veteran center wrote: "Though I'm better now,

DOHA: Qatar is in talks with coronavirus vaccine makers to ensure all fans attending the 2022 World Cup in the country have been vaccinated, the foreign minister said Friday (Apr 16). The Gulf nation is facing a resurgence of virus cases and deaths despite progress in its mass vaccination programme, forcing authorities to impose a nationwide lockdown. "We have been negotiating and talking to the vaccination providers on how we can make sure that everyone attending the World Cup is vaccinated," Foreign Minister

LONDON: Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says giving up on the Premier League title is "not in our DNA" even though their pursuit of runaway leaders Manchester City appears hopeless. United head into Sunday's home game against struggling Burnley second in the table, 11 points behind City but with a game in hand. The Norwegian believes his side are on the right track but admits adding to their 20 league titles is unlikely. "Of course we'll never give up," Solskjaer said after

Rafa Nadal suffered a shock quarter-final defeat by Russian Andrey Rublev at the Monte Carlo Masters on Friday as he was overpowered 6-2 4-6 6-2, only his sixth ever loss at the tournament he has won 11 times. The Spaniard was in danger of being thrashed when Rublev led by a break in the second set, having dominated the opener, but showed his trademark grit to battle back. Rublev was unrelenting, however, and bludgeoned his way into a 5-1 lead in the second

Police Scotland are seeking to prosecute Slavia Prague defender Ondrej Kudela for racially abusing Glen Kamara in a Europa League match last month, the Rangers midfielder’s lawyer said on Thursday. Kamara complained of being racially abused by Kudela during the second-leg of a last-16 tie where Rangers were eliminated and Europe’s soccer governing body UEFA on Wednesday banned the Czech defender for 10 games. “Today Police Scotland confirmed that a case against Ondrej Kudela was submitted to the Procurator Fiscal for consideration, relating

Jaylen Brown scored 40 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the Boston Celtics closed out a perfect road trip with a 121-113 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. Brown finished 17 of 20 from the field and at one point made 11 straight shots. The Celtics, who ended 3-0 on the trek and earned their fifth straight win overall, never trailed. Marcus Smart and Payton Pritchard each scored 15 points. Getting the start in place of Andre Drummond (bruised right big

SINGAPORE: Delwinder Singh is more used to crunching tackles than crunching the numbers but he is well aware of the figure in question. That was the number of days since Tanjong Pagar United’s last win in Singapore’s professional football league. And while the numbers don’t lie, sometimes they don’t tell the entire truth, said Delwinder, a defender for the Jaguars. After all, the team had sat out the competition for five seasons since their last win in 2014. They’d then gone winless through

LIVERPOOL: Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane moved clear at the top of this season's Premier League scoring charts but his two goals were only good enough for a 2-2 draw away to Everton on Friday (Apr 16). The England captain opened the scoring in the 27th minute with his 20th league goal of the campaign but former Spurs player Gylfi Sigurdsson levelled from the penalty spot. But Kane punished a defensive mistake six minutes later to earn his side a draw. Worryingly for seventh-placed

MADRID: Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman has reiterated that he is not worried about his future ahead of Saturday's (Apr 17) Copa del Rey final meeting with Athletic Bilbao. The Copa represents a chance for Barca to end a trophyless run which dates back to the 2018-19 season. After finishing last season without silverware, their hopes of Champions League glory were ended by PSG at the last-16 stage, while their defeat in last weekend's El Clasico means they are third-placed in La Liga heading

Stewart Cink opened up a five-shot lead at the halfway stage of the RBC Heritage after firing back-to-back rounds of 63. Cink followed an early eagle at the second with six birdies as he raced to 16 under par, dropping only one shot over the first 36 holes to become the oldest player to hold the halfway lead in the history of the tournament in South Carolina. Overnight leader Cameron Smith slipped seven shots off the pace, while Dustin Johnson safely made it

SINGAPORE: Joseph Schooling famously upset the great Michael Phelps to win Olympic gold but he said "my biggest rival is myself" as he bids to return to form at the Tokyo Games. Schooling, Singapore's first Olympic champion, said the year's pandemic delay had given him extra time to prepare after a disappointing world championships in 2019. The 25-year-old caused a sensation at Rio 2016, when he beat his idol Phelps - who has a record 23 Olympic gold medals - by a fingertip

MANCHESTER, England: Manchester United reached the Europa League semi-finals after Edinson Cavani's early strike and a Jesus Vallejo own goal secured a 2-0 home win over Granada on Thursday (Apr 15) and completed a 4-0 aggregate rout of the Spanish side. United will face AS Roma for a place in the May 26 final in Gdansk after the Italian side ground out a 3-2 aggregate win over Ajax Amsterdam with a 1-1 home draw in the second leg of their quarter-final. Cavani netted

Japan's inability to contain the COVID-19 pandemic means that plans to hold the Olympics in Tokyo should be reconsidered, health experts wrote in a commentary. The 2020 Games, already delayed by one year, are due to begin in fewer than 100 days, even as Japan expands quasi-emergency measures to halt a fourth wave of infections. Japan has exhibited "poor performance" in containing virus transmission, along with limited testing capacity and a slow vaccination rollout, according to the commentary published in the British Medical

PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain were revelling in the joy of knocking holders Bayern Munich out of the Champions League in midweek when Neymar offered more cause for celebration. In an interview with Brazilian broadcaster TNT Sports following PSG's away-goals victory in the quarter-finals, Neymar dropped a clear hint that he would be staying at PSG beyond the end of his current contract. "For me there is no debate, it is obvious that I feel very comfortable here and at home at Paris Saint-Germain. I

MADRID: First-half strikes from Paco Alcacer and Gerard Moreno guided Villarreal into the Europa League semi-finals with a 2-1 victory over Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday (Apr 15) and a 3-1 aggregate triumph. Villarreal dominated the game and almost took the lead after 25 minutes when forward Samuel Chukwueze rattled the post with a close-range volley. They did not have to wait long to open the scoring, however, with Alcacer netting 10 minutes later. Chukwueze was initially flagged offside in the build-up, but the

Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been treated in hospital after he contracted malaria while on international duty with Gabon. The 31-year-old scored in Gabon's 3-0 win over DR Congo in Africa Cup of Nations qualification on 25 March. He played in Arsenal's Europa League quarter-final first leg against Slavia Prague on 8 April but missed Sunday's win over Sheffield United. "I've spent a few days in hospital this week," he said on Instagram. "I'm already feeling much better every day, thanks to the

World number one Judd Trump says the return of fans will help bring out his best at the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield. Until now the 2020-21 season has been entirely played behind closed doors because of Covid-19 restrictions. However, the tournament is part of a government pilot scheme to help fans return to sporting and cultural venues. "You miss the coughing and the mobile phones going off," Trump told BBC Radio 5 Live. "When you are losing and you get a frame

British number one Dan Evans claimed the biggest win of his career by beating Novak Djokovic in the last 16 of the Monte Carlo Masters. Evans, who has struggled on clay in recent times, started superbly against the world number one, breaking him in his first two service games. He was able to wrap up the opening set before Djokovic fought back at the start of the second. But Evans recovered and held his nerve to wrap up a 6-4 7-5 win. It

Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli has been reprimanded after hitting a plastic chair with his bat following his dismissal during an Indian Premier League (IPL) match. Kohli made 33 in Bangalore's second successive win this season of the popular Twenty20 tournament after they edged out Sunrisers Hyderabad by six runs in Chennai on Wednesday (Apr 14). But the star batsman was charged for breaching the IPL's code of conduct that relates to "abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures