Kiessling: Bundesliga top scorer Stefan Kiessling has extended his contract with Bayer Leverkusen for three more years until 2015. The 25-year-old, who has scored 16 times in the league this season, said he wanted to stay with the club he joined in 2006 to taste success.
Robinson: Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson's hopes of a World Cup recall took a knock yesterday when Blackburn Rovers said he would be out for up to a month with a calf injury. The 30-year-old, who has won 41 caps, was last included in an England squad in October but has not played under manager Fabio Capello.
Arshavin: Arsenal forward Andrei Arshavin was unhurt after being involved in a traffic accident on Monday. Team-mate Nicklas Bendtner had what an ambulance spokesman called a "very lucky escape" earlier in the season when he crashed his Aston Martin into a tree.
Buffon: Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is "very annoyed" by reports linking him with a move to Manchester City. Reports claim City are ready to offer €35m to land Buffon after the World Cup. "Gigi is very annoyed because those rumours have no foundation," said Buffon's agent Silvano Martina.
Flamengo: Brazilian team Flamengo, fearful of another earthquake in Chile, will fly into Santiago just hours before today's Libertadores Cup match with Universidad de Chile. "A replica on the same scale is expected in the coming days," Flamengo's sporting director Isaias Tinoco said.
Golf: The World Cup is to become a biennial event and after a break this year the team competition will return in 2011 with a record purse of $7.5 million. The World Cup, which has been held annually since 1953, will next year boast one of the richest prize funds in golf when it is held at the Mission Hills Resort in southern China from Nov. 24-27. One of the reasons for the change was last year's decision by the IOC to re-introduce golf to the Olympic movement from 2016.
Ice hockey: Russian team Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg were fined $34,000 after one of their fans leapt on to the rink and whacked a visiting player over the head with his own stick. Towards the end of the first period in Sunday's Continental Hockey League (KHL) play-off game against Salavat Yulayev Ufa, a home fan jumped over protective glass boards, grabbed the stick from reserve Ufa goaltender Vitaly Kolesnik and attacked him.
Swimming: Stephanie Rice booked a place at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi when she won the 200m individual medley at the Australian selection trials. Rice swam a time of 2:10.07 to edge out fellow Queenslanders Emily Seebohm (2:10.75) and Alica Coutts (2:11.97). With the first two in each final being guaranteed selection for the October Commonwealth Games, Rice is assured of a spot on the Delhi team.
Motor racing: Michael Schumacher's Formula One return at the Bahrain Grand Prix was a big hit with German television viewers as almost twice as many tuned in this year, broadcaster RTL said. The seven-times world champion's comeback race was watched by an average audience of 10.5 million Germans on Sunday, compared to the 5.3 million viewers the season-opening event attracted last season.