MEN’S FOOTBALL: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says Alisson Becker is “close” to a playing return, despite the Brazilian goalkeeper again missing today’s friendly with Salzburg through injury.
Becker has not played since the 4-0 defeat to Manchester United in Bangkok two weeks ago.
Liverpool take on Salzburg as part of their ongoing training camp in Austria ahead of Saturday’s FA Community Shield match against Manchester City.
Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com: “Obviously Diogo [Jota] is not here, that’s clear, but from the boys who are injured — but are here — Ali is the closest — definitely not for Salzburg but then we will see. He is close to getting back, I think.”
WOMEN’S CRICKET: Seventeen-year-old debutant Freya Kemp took two wickets as England cruised to a third successive T20 international victory over South Africa by 38 runs.
The teenager finished with two for 18 at Derby after Sophie Ecclestone had blasted 26 off the final over of her side’s innings to set the South Africans 177 to win.
England ended the multiformat series unbeaten and in good form five days before they launch their Commonwealth Games campaign.
BRAIN HEALTH: New research claims to have found “conclusive evidence” that repetitive head impacts can cause degenerative brain disease, with leading sports organisations urged to acknowledge the analysis by world-leading experts.
An international team of experts have issued a global call for further chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) prevention and mitigation efforts to be brought in, especially for children.
Researchers from Oxford Brookes University and 12 other academic institutions produced the study, with analysis provided by Concussion Legacy Foundation UK.
It found that the brain banks of the US Department of Defence, Boston University-US Department of Veterans Affairs and Mayo Clinic have all published independent studies showing that contact-sport athletes were at least 68 times more likely to develop CTE than those who did not play any contact sport.
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