Sneijder: Inter's influential playmaker Wesley Sneijder is a doubt for Wednesday's Champions League semi-final second leg in Barcelona due to a thigh problem. The former Real Madrid man, who scored in Inter's 3-1 first-leg win, came off at half-time in the 3-1 Serie A victory over Atalanta.
Essien: Michael Essien may miss the World Cup because of his long-term knee injury. Essien has been sidelined since the African Nations Cup finals in Angola in January and recent complications have stalled his recovery.
Lyon: Lyon defender Cris is doubtful for Tuesday's Champions League semi-final second leg against Bayern Munich because of hip and knee problems, coach Claude Puel said. The loss of Cris would be a huge blow to the Lyon defence, with Jeremy Toulalan suspended after his red card in the first leg.
Santana: Fiorentina have lost Mario Alberto Santana for the rest of the season with a torn knee ligament. The Argentine was playing in a midweek friendly against an amateur team when he collided with the opposition goalkeeper.
Ballack: Germany coach Joachim Loew will be in London today to see the national team's captain Michael Ballack in action for Chelsea. The pair will catch the Blues' Premier League match with Stoke at Stamford Bridge before meeting with the 33-year-old for talks afterwards.
Flamengo: Brazilian champions Flamengo sacked coach Andrade and two club officials, the three men falling victim to the team's disappointing Libertadores Cup campaign. Flamengo scraped into the knockout phase of the competition in midweek when, having failed to win their group, they finished sixth and last among the best second-placed teams.
Race of Champions: This year's Race of Champions will be held in Duesseldorf after being staged in Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium in 2009. F1 drivers Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, who have together won the event for the past three years, have already signed up to defend their title at the covered 51,000-seat Esprit arena on Nov. 26-27.
Basket, NBA: Boston Celtics put Miami Heat on the brink of elimination from the play-offs, with a clutch 100-98 victory to take a 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first round series. Boston can close out the best-of-seven series with a win in Game Four in Miami tonight. No NBA team has ever come back to win a series after losing the first three games.
Swimming: Teenager Li Xuanxu has underlined her burgeoning talent by racing to an 800m freestyle victory at the Chinese national championships in the third best time of the year. The 16-year-old, who swam the world's fastest 400m individual medley time of the year on Thursday, proved she was no slouch at double the distance by clocking 8:24.10 in Shaoxing.
Badminton: World and Olympic champion Lin Dan's triumph at the Asian championships last week has propelled him back to his familiar role as China's number one player. Lin's win in New Delhi, where he beat Wang Zhengming in the final, came on the back of disappointing early exits at the All England, which he had previously won four times, and Swiss Super Series events.
Basketball: Argentina's leading player Manu Ginobili will not play at the world championship in Turkey in August for family reasons. The San Antonio Spurs guard, who recently signed a multi-year contract extension with his NBA team, said he wanted to be with his wife who is expecting twins in May.
Tennis: World number seven Andy Roddick will miss next week's Rome Masters due to personal reasons. The American is due to return for the Madrid Masters on May 9 to prepare for the French Open two weeks later. Rafael Nadal will defend his title in Rome.