Zanetti: Inter captain Javier Zanetti continued his swift recovery from injury when he returned to the pitch for a friendly match against Swiss side Chiasso at the weekend. The 32-year-old has been out of action since pulling an adductor muscle in his right leg in Inter's Serie A opener against Treviso on August 28. Initially, the club's doctors estimated the Argentine would take between two and three months to recover, but he could be back sooner after playing for 30 minutes of Inter's 3-1 win on Sunday.
Nesta: Italy and Milan defender Alessandro Nesta has been ruled out for at least a month with a hand injury, his club said yesterday. Nesta suffered the injury to the first finger of his left hand in Italy's 1-0 win over Slovenia on Saturday, a result which secured the Azzurri a place in next year's World Cup finals. Milan said that Nesta underwent a scan yesterday and that he would need surgery on the hand. Inter defender Marco Materazzi is likely to replace Nesta alongside Fabio Cannavaro in the Italy defence for tomorrow's last qualifier against Moldova at Lecce.
Ambitious Target: A football fan who won a record 122.8 million crowns ($15.99 million) on the lottery wants to buy Juventus and Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic for his local club, Swedish media said yesterday. Ibrahimovic, 23, was valued at 16 million euros ($19.46 million) when Juventus bought him from Ajax Amsterdam in August 2004. "We discussed the possibilities of buying Zlatan for Visby club Gute," national lottery spokesman Tommy Wahlgren said after talking to the 36-year-old winner, who was not named. The new millionaire is an avid fan of second division Gute.
Duff: Winger Damien Duff will miss Ireland's decisive World Cup qualifier at home to Switzerland tomorrow because of a knee injury. "Damien had a scan this evening on the knee injury which forced him to come off during Saturday's match against Cyprus," manager Brian Kerr said. "The scan revealed cartilage damage which will certainly keep him out of Wednesday's game. He has returned to Chelsea for further assessment and treatment."
Lahm: Bayern Munich defender Philipp Lahm is back in training after a long injury lay-off and hopes to complete his recovery in time to face Juventus in the Champions League on November 2. The German left-back suffered cruciate knee ligament damage in May, shortly before returning to Bayern following a two-season spell on loan at Stuttgart. Bayern are preparing for home and away matches against Juventus in the Champions League with the first match on October 18 and the return in Turin two weeks later.
Portsmouth: Velimir Zajec has resigned as director of football at Portsmouth, the Premier League club said yesterday. Zajec, who used to play for Dinamo Zagreb and was a former director of football at Greek club Panathinaikos, told the club's website: "These are very personal reasons and I wish them to remain that way."
In England: League One - Bradford C. vs Huddersfield T. 1-2.
Italy: Serie B - Cesena vs Bari 2-1; Piacenza vs Rimini 0-0.
Serie C1/B - Pistoiese vs Acireale 0-1.
MFA Division Two: Attard vs Vittoriosa 0-2; Gharghur vs Zebbug 0-0.