TORRES: Chelsea will be without striker Fernando Torres as they try to get their Premier League title challenge back into gear with victory at struggling West Ham United today. The Spaniard had “almost” recovered from the adductor muscle injury he suffered before the Champions League game against Schalke this month but was not ready to play, manager Jose Mourinho said yesterday.

REID: West Ham United defender Winston Reid has undergone ankle surgery and is ruled out for the foreseeable future, the Premier League club said yesterday. The New Zealand international centre back, voted the London side’s player of the year last season, suffered an ankle sprain in training on Nov. 5 and missed both legs of his country’s World Cup play-off defeat by Mexico.

BROWN: Sunderland boss Gus Poyet will make a late check on defender Wes Brown before finalising his plans for today’s trip to Stoke. The 34-year-old has played the last two and a half games after almost two years on the sidelines, and while he appears to have suffered no ill-effects, Poyet will assess him for the game at the Britannia Stadium.

AMELIA: Milan will have to do without reserve goalkeeper Marco Amelia for the next four weeks to recover from a knee operation which was done yesterday. “The surgery was a success with recovery time estimated at one month,” a club statement said.

RANGERS: Isle of Man-based hedge fund Laxey Partners has become the largest shareholder in Rangers following a £1.4m deal. The group took its shareholding to 11.64 per cent of the company, Rangers International Football Club plc, after buying more than 3.3 million shares. Laxey Partners now has more than 7.5 million shares.

A-LEAGUE: Brisbane Roar re-turned to the top of the A-League table following a hard-fought 3-1 win over Western Sydney Wanderers in a top-of the-table clash yesterday. First-half strikes from Besart Berisha and Ivan Franjic proved decisive for the Roar, who withstood a fight back from the visitors before Kwame Yeboah settled the result with a sharp finish in injury time.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP: Don-caster Rovers vs Yeovil 2-1.

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