Bale: Gareth Bale will not feature for Wales in their final two World Cup qualifiers, manager Chris Coleman said yesterday after naming the Real Madrid forward in his squad. “We have spoken to the doctor and we will be without him (Bale), but we said all along it is very tough for him to have had no pre-season and be thrown in at the deep end,” Coleman told a news conference.

In Bulgaria: Atanas Atanasov has quit Bulgarian top-flight newcomers Neftochimik Burgas one day after being unveiled as coach, the club said yesterday. Struggling Neftochimik, who turned to Atanasov after releasing Anton Spasov last week, said they parted company with the 44-year-old due to “different views and concepts for the development of the team”.

Hughton: Police and Norwich City are investigating an alleged racist message posted about the club’s manager Chris Hughton on an unofficial Facebook page. “Following last weekend’s victory for the Canaries away to Stoke, unacceptable terminology was used on the Facebook page ‘**OFFICIAL**!!! Ipswich - Norwich fans ban-ter/insult/joke page’,” the English club said yesterday. “It should be stressed the site is in no way officially affiliated to either club.”

Benteke: Injured striker Christian Benteke was included in Belgium’s squad by coach Marc Wilmots yesterday in the hope that he will recover in time for their final 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Croatia and Wales. Benteke suffered a hip injury playing for his Premier League side Aston Villa on Sept. 21 and was initially ruled out for between four and six weeks. However, the Belgian FA’s medical team visited Birmingham earlier this week and said the injury appeared to be healing faster than expected.

Farfan: Schalke 04 midfielder Jefferson Farfan has been ruled out for several weeks with an adductor muscle injury. The Peruvian was injured in their 1-0 win at Basel in the European competition on Wednesday.