Virus-struck PSG lose league opener
LENS • Paris Saint-Germain kicked off their season in the worst possible fashion on Thursday as their coronavirus-depleted team fell to a 1-0 defeat at newly-promoted Lens.
PSG came into their first match of the new domestic season with seven of their star players missing after testing positive for coronavirus, including Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
They started the match with their third-choice goalkeeper Marcin Bulka and it was the 20-year-old who handed Lens the win with an awful blunder 11 minutes after the break.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Messi cleared to play for Argentina
BUENOS AIRES • Lionel Messi can play in Argentina's opening World Cup qualifier next month because the statute of limitations has run out on the ban he was given during last year's Copa America, the president of the Argentinian Football Association (AFA) said on Thursday.
Messi was banned for one game after he was sent off in the Copa America third-place play-off against Chile and then levelled accusations of "corruption" at South American football chiefs.
He had been expected to serve the ban by missing Argentina's qualifier against Ecuador that is scheduled to take place in Buenos Aires on Oct 8. But Conmebol president Alejandro Dominguez confirmed Messi can play.
REUTERS
Daly may need surgery for cancer
NEW YORK • Two-time Major winner John Daly said on Thursday he has been diagnosed with bladder cancer and that while it was caught early, he may need further surgery if it returns.
The 54-year-old American told Golf Channel the cancer was discovered during an appointment related to kidney stones.
REUTERS
Tokyo 2020 official quits committee
TOKYO • Tokyo 2020 sports director Koji Murofushi has left the organising committee to join the Japan Sports Agency, the Olympic body announced yesterday, a departure that comes just 10 months before the start of the rearranged Games.
The former Olympic gold medallist hammer thrower was one of the key public-facing officials in the organising committee.
REUTERS
