Veron: Midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron put a difficult week behind him by inspiring Estudiantes to a 3-0 win away to Banfield in their opening Argentine championship match. Veron, who briefly walked out on the team in a contract row on Thursday, pulled the strings in midfield and converted a 90th minute penalty in Friday night's game.

Ronaldinho: Ronaldinho is doubtful for Barcelona's first game in the Far East against Beijing Guoan today after picking up an ankle injury during training. The injury occurred when Ronaldinho attempted to pull off one of his trademark manoeuvres, but ended up twisting his ankle.

Deco: Deco yesterday left Barcelona's tour of Asia to fly straight to Sao Paulo where his wife gave birth to their fourth child, who has been named David. The former Porto midfielder is due to return to Barcelona to continue pre-season training when the squad returns from the Far East tour.

Rallying: Marcus Gronholm remained on course for a fourth straight Finnish Rally title after winning five of yesterday's nine stages. The Finnish Ford driver appeared firmly in command of the rally with a lead of 20.4 seconds over compatriot Mikko Hirvonen. Defending triple world champion Sebastien Loeb of Citroen was third.

Rugby: Nick Easter scored a hat-trick of tries as England destroyed an under-strength Wales by a record 62-5 yesterday in an impressive forward display in the first of their three August World Cup warm-ups.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.