Category: Sports

Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel has undergone the first of two planned shoulder surgeries as the veteran looks to salvage his playing career.

The 39-year-old Denmark number one revealed the extent of his injuries live on radio last week.

Now, writing on Instagram, Schmeichel announced: “First shoulder operation done, everything went well.

“Now full focus on recovery and preparing for the next one. Thanks for all the messages over the past few weeks, it means a lot.”

Schmeichel, who joined Celtic after leaving Anderlecht in 2024 but is out of contract this summer, faces up to a year in recovery.

Having received some criticism for his final performances for Celtic – he has not played since 22 February – the Dane revealed that he had been playing through the pain barrier for several months.

Interim manager Martin O’Neill admitted he was “surprised at the severity” of Schmeichel’s shoulder injury.

Bompastor was visibly upset on the touchline as she approached the fourth official to question the decision.

Chelsea’s players looked bemused and their frustrations grew, including Bompastor kicking a bottle, when Kadeisha Buchanan’s late effort was ruled out for a foul on goalkeeper Anneke Borbe, although replays showed that was the correct decision.

Asked what feedback she received from the officials on their decisions, Bompastor said: “Nothing. It’s always the same. You go to them and ask them to check they made the right decision, they always say ‘yeah, we are checking.’

“But they made the wrong decision. Nothing changes. When a human makes a mistake, you can understand a little more but when there is the VAR, it’s really difficult.

“I don’t think it’s been the first time for us this season in the Champions League. When we played Barcelona, Catarina Macario’s goal was not offside. That changes a lot. I just think they need to be better.”

Bompastor insisted she believes VAR is good for the women’s game but that the officials using it must be the “right people to check the situations”.

Asked how the women’s game could be respected more, Bompastor said the solution would be to bring the “best” referees to the biggest games.

“If that has to be coming from the men’s game, then maybe,” she said. “If it is coming from the women’s game, then [use] the best ones,” she added.

“We need to make those decisions. It’s really frustrating. We need to bring competence which is the most important thing.”

Pesu, 36, has officiated throughout this year’s Women’s Champions League and oversaw two games at last summer’s European Championship, including the opening match between hosts Switzerland and Norway.

Hoddle, now a respected television pundit, is 68, but was sacked as Spurs manager in September 2003. The last post the former England manager occupied was with Wolverhampton Wanderers, leaving in July 2006.

Ryan Mason, sacked by West Bromwich Albion in January, is a well-respected and popular figure having twice served as Spurs’ caretaker manager following the sackings of Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, but his reputation took a hit during an unrewarding spell at The Hawthorns.

After that disappointment, would Spurs turn to him? Would he even want to walk into such an ominous situation?

Tim Sherwood, the former player who left Spurs in May 2014 after a six-month spell as permanent head coach, has made it clear he fancies the job, saying: “I would keep them in the Premier League. I believe that someone with common sense keeps them in the Premier League.”

Robbie Keane, currently at Ferencvaros in Hungary, falls into the category of the younger up-and-coming manager, but would the former Spurs captain leave a full-time job for a new post that might only extend to seven games.

In May of last year, former Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said: “We are not good enough for transition games. If you see our worst moments of the season, or games we struggled, they were all games where the game became transition.”

This quote helps explain why Chelsea may have run less on purpose, particularly in the first part of the season. Instructing his team to play slower while dominating possession would have created fewer turnovers and transitions leading to Chelsea needing to run big distances less often.

Playing more slowly on the ball in theory may have helped Chelsea’s players rest during the game before then pressing more intensely for shorter periods.

This season, Manchester City are top in terms of the average distance run per Premier League game.

Although this appears to be a positive stat, after their 3-0 win against West Ham earlier this season, Guardiola said: “I love [how much we run], last season we didn’t have that. But it’s not enough, we have to play better [so] we could run less.”

Reading between the lines, Guardiola appeared pleased at the increase in commitment but likely wanted his side to play in a less end-to-end fashion, instead looking for more control.

The final six spots at the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada will be decided this month.

Four European nations have the chance to qualify via the play-offs, featuring one-legged semi-finals and then a final.

The semi-finals take place on Thursday, 26 March and the finals on Tuesday, 31 March.

The other two places will be decided via the intercontinental play-offs, which features six nations.

The European play-off winners will enter World Cup groups A, B, D, and F, while the intercontinental play-off winners will be added into groups I and K.

However, the impending return of captain Martin Odegaard will help ease the impact of Eze’s loss.

Odegaard has a knee injury and has been unavailable for a month, but there is hope he will be fit to play after the international break.

The midfielder will miss Norway’s games against Holland and Switzerland to focus on ensuring he is available as early as possible.

While losing Eze comes as a blow, the fact the injury comes as the international break starts will help minimise the impact created by his absence.

Arsenal‘s next game is the FA Cup quarter-final at Southampton on Saturday, 4 April – a competition in which Arteta has looked to rotate members of his squad.