Sporting briefs

Ze Roberto: Hamburg’s Brazil midfielder Ze Roberto set a new record for a foreigner in the Bundesliga yesterday when he took the field for his 331st league match in the goalless draw with Hoffenheim. Ze Roberto, 36, bettered the previous record of 330 set by Bosnia’s Sergej Barbarez, who also played for Hamburg before quitting in 2008.

Rooney: Wayne Rooney could be in hot water after millions of viewers heard the Man. United striker swearing directly into a TV camera during yesterday’s match at West Ham. Rooney uttered an audible expletive following the completion of his hat-trick at Upton Park.

Del Piero: Juventus will be without Alessandro del Piero for today’s match at Roma after sustaining an injury during training in midweek. The Bianconeri captain strained a muscle in his left thigh and faces at least two weeks on the sidelines. This week Juve also lost centre-back Giorgio Chiellini for a month with injury.

Forlan: Diego Forlan has denied media reports that he has a fractious relationship with team-mates at Atletico Madrid. The 31-year-old said in an exchange on his Twitter account that “I get on well” with all members of the Atletico squad and that reports to the contrary were the media taking comments out of context.

Ajax: J-League first division side Shimizu S-Pulse will play Dutch side Ajax to raise funds for victims of the country’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, officials said. The game will be played at the Amsterdam Arena on April 13 after Shimzu accepted an invitation from the city of Amsterdam.

Schalke: Schalke have injury worries ahead of their Champions League quarter-final at holders Inter on Tuesday as defender Christoph Metzelder has a broken nose. Metzelder suffered the injury in his side’s match at St Pauli late Friday. Injuries to both forwards Mario Gavranovic and Peer Kluge on Friday mean the Royal Blues have a few concerns ahead of their trip to the San Siro.

Kranjc: Serie A club Genoa are on the verge of signing young Slovenian Luka Kranjc who had also attracted Chelsea’s interest. The 16-year-old centre-back is captain of the U-17 national team. He had a trial with Chelsea in December but is now likely to undergo a medical tomorrow before signing a long-term contract with Genoa.

Swimming: Alicia Coutts beat triple Olympic champion Stephanie Rice twice to secure her first two titles at Aus-tralia’s World Championship trials in Sydney yesterday. The five-time Delhi Commonwealth Games gold medallist beat Rice in both the 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley to book her place at July’s World Championships in Shanghai. Coutts, 23, who had never claimed an Australian long course title in her six previous meets, broke through with victory ahead of Rice and Jessicah Schipper in the ’fly.

Snooker: Judd Trump booked a place in the China Open final yesterday with a comprehensive defeat of Shaun Murphy. The 21-year-old Bristol cueman was too strong for the 2005 world champion at Beijing’s Students University Stadium, winning 6-1. It means he will appear in his first ranking tournament final today, against Mark Selby who beat home favourite Ding Junhui 6-3.

Rugby Union: The Italian Rugby Federation has said that they could switch Italy’s two Six Nations games next year from Rome to Florence if repairs were not carried out in time at the Stadio Flaminio. Italy have played all their home games in Rome since they entered the Six Nations tournament in 2000. Their last game at the Flaminio last month saw them record an historic win over France.

Basket, NBA: The Philadelphia 76ers are headed back to the NBA play-offs, booking a berth with a 115-90 thumping of the New Jersey Nets. Thaddeus Young scored 22 points and Elton Brand added 21 for the Sixers, who are back in the post-season after a one-year absence.

American Football: American football club Kansas City will name their stadium Livestrong, the foundation set up by Lance Armstrong to fight cancer, merchandising company Sponsoring.fr said. A six-year deal has been agreed under which Livestrong will not have to pay anything to have the 18,500-capacity venue bear its name while the foundation will receive a portion of gate receipts worth as much as €7.2 million over the period in question. Armstrong, 39, retired definitively from racing after the Tour Down Under last January.