ROONEY: Wayne Rooney is a major injury doubt for England's friendly with Egypt at Wembley on Wednesday. Rooney came off the bench to score his 28th goal of the season and win the League Cup for Manchester United against Aston Villa yesterday. But Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed the 24-year-old was feeling slight discomfort in his knee afterwards. Rooney will be assessed by England's medical staff before Fabio Capello knows whether he has his talisman available to face the African Nations Cup winners.
PATO DOUBTFUL: Milan striker Alexandre Pato is doubtful for their Champions League last 16 second leg at Manchester United on March 10. The Brazilian scored twice in yesterday's 3-1 Serie A win over Atalanta but went off with a thigh injury and looks almost certain to miss Saturday's league match at Roma and possibly the United clash, where Milan have to reverse a 3-2 deficit.
FANS INJURED: Nuremberg director of sport Martin Bader yesterday vowed to identify those responsible for lighting the fireworks and flares in the away fans' enclosure in Saturday's Bundesliga match at Bochum (0-0) which left nine fans injured. Three supporters suffered serious injury in the incident shortly before kick-off. "Such scenes are unimaginable and terrible, that shouldn't be allowed to happen in football stadiums," Bader said.
CISSE: Panathinaikos striker Djibril Cisse has been added to the France squad for Wednesday's friendly against Spain, the French Football Federation said yesterday. "(Coach) Raymond Domenech has called up Djibril Cisse to France's squad," the FFF said in a statement. Cisse, 28, last played for France in a 2-0 win against Ecuador in a friendly in May 2008. He has scored nine goals in 37 appearances.
ATHLETICS: Japan's Masakazu Fujiwara won a rainy Tokyo Marathon yesterday amid tsunami warnings following a massive earthquake in Chile. Fujiwara broke clear at the 40-kilometre mark to cross the finish line at Tokyo Bay in two hours, 12 minutes and 19 seconds and become the first Japanese to claim the men's title. Namesake Arata Fujiwara finished runner-up in 2:12:34 while Atsushi Sato rounded out a Japanese 1-2-3 in a time of 2:12:35. Russia's Alevtina Biktimirova won the women's race in 2:34:39.
MOTORCYCLING: Briton Leon Haslam won the closest race in 22 years of superbike world championship racing to get his 2010 season off to the best possible start with a maiden victory at Phillip Island yesterday. Just four thousandths of a second (0.004 seconds) separated the Suzuki rider from Italian Michel Fabrizio's Ducati. Fabrizio was originally awarded the win but the decision was reversed when officials studied photographs of the finish, which showed Haslam half a wheel ahead.
RUGBY UNION: Russia have qualified for the World Cup for the first time following Saturday's 21-21 draw with Romania in the European Nations Cup, RWC officials confirmed. Organisers originally said that Russia's draw meant they were not yet guaranteed their place in New Zealand next year but said yesterday that because of their superior head-to-head record against Germany and Romania - their only remaining challengers - they were assured of progress. Russia are on 21 points, two behind Georgia, who secured their qualification on Saturday with a 17-9 victory over Spain.
BASKET, NBA: The Milwaukee Bucks crushed the Miami Heat 94-71 for their sixth consecutive victory on Saturday. Recently acquired guard John Salmons paced the romp with 18 points as the Bucks, who have not lost to the Heat in three games this season, stayed ahead of the hosts in the race for seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings.