Sporting briefs

Walcott: Theo Walcott is expected to recover from a mild hamstring problem in time for Arsenal’s FA Cup fifth-round tie against Leyton Orient on Sunday. Walcott sustained the injury in Wednesday’s 2-1 Champions League victory over Barcelona, but manager Arsene Wenger predicts the England winger will make a swift recovery. “We have a little concern about Walcott’s hamstring but it should be all right,” Wenger said.

Corluka: Tottenham have confirmed that Vedran Corluka suffered a sprained ankle from Mathieu Flamini’s horror tackle and should be back in full training in a few weeks. Corluka had to be carried off on a stretcher in the second half of Spurs’ 1-0 win over Milan in the San Siro on Tuesday, after being hit with a late two-footed sliding challenge from the Frenchman.

Champions League: Tickets for this season’s Champions League final at Wembley will be the most expensive in history, UEFA confirmed yesterday as officials revealed sharp price hikes for entry to the football showpiece. While the cheapest tickets sold via allocations to clubs will be 80 pounds (95 euros), the cheapest on general sale “category three” will cost 176 pounds (209 euros), which includes an administration fee.

Fans arrested: Seven Shakhtar Donetsk fans were arrested following Wednesday’s Champions League victory over Roma at the Stadio Olimpico for fighting among themselves. Carabinieri federal police intervened after a mass drunken brawl broke out between two different groups of the Ukrainian club’s fans, Ansa reported. All those arrested were aged between 19 and 37 while some fans involved in the fighting were treated for minor injuries.

Williams: Australian A-League champions Sydney FC said yesterday they had signed David Williams on loan from North Queensland Fury for the club’s AFC Champions League campaign starting next month. Williams, 23, has had standout seasons with the struggling Fury and will join Sydney FC for the group stage of the ACL campaign.

Jailed: A football fan who ran on to a pitch and punched a player was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison today. Robert Fitzgerald, 24, was also banned from attending regulated football matches in England and Wales for six years after assaulting Stevenage defender Scott Laird. Last month, Fitzgerald admitted invading the pitch and punching Laird as fans celebrated the club's 3-1 win against Newcastle in the FA Cup on January 8.

Basketball: Cleveland’s NBA doormat Cavaliers made certain that no more dubious history would be made at their expense this season by stunning the two-time reigning champions Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. Ramon Sessions came off the bench to score a season-high 32 points as the Cavaliers defeated the Lakers 104-99, avenging the stinging humiliation of a 112-57 loss at the hands of the Lakers last month.

Formula One: Robert Kubica has had a successful eight-hour long operation, his third since crashing in Italy earlier this month, the hospital treating him said. “Robert Kubica’s wrist was operated on from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The operation was a success and it will probably not be necessary for him to undergo further surgery,” the Santa Corona de Pietra Ligure hospital near Genoa said in a statement. The Polish Lotus Renault GP driver crashed while competing at the Ronde di Andora Rally in Liguria.

Tennis: Svetlana Kuznetsova, who missed six match points while losing the longest match in Grand Slam history in Melbourne last month, missed six more whilst gaining revenge over Francesca Schiavone in the Dubai Open yesterday. The former French and US Open champion from Russia beat the French Open champion from Italy 1-6, 6-0, 7-5 in another extraordinary match in which picking a winner was like trying to understand the motions of a seismometer.

Boxing: The super welterweight crown stripped from Filipino Manny Pacquiao could find its way into the gloved hands of Britain’s Matthew Hatton next month. World Boxing Council officials said that the winner of the March 5 fight between Hatton and Mexico’s undefeated Saul Alvarez will receive the super welterweight title that “Pac-Man” decided not to defend. Pacquiao has instead booked a May welterweight title fight with US veteran Shane Mosley.