Rooney left out of England squad
Wayne Rooney’s international career looks over after England’s all-time top-scorer was Thursday left out of the squad for next month’s World Cup qualifier against Scotland and a friendly in France. The 31-year-old striker has lost his place at Manchester United and was similarly omitted from Gareth Southgate’s England squad announced in March, although he was carrying a knee injury at the time.
Fit-again Rooney, who made a brief appearance in Manchester United’s Europa League final win over Ajax in Stockholm on Wednesday, had hoped to end his international career by captaining England at next year’s World Cup in Russia.
But this now looks an increasingly forlorn hope for Rooney, England’s record goalscorer with 53 goals and their most capped outfielder with 119 appearances for his country. His United career could also be over having fallen down the pecking order under manager Jose Mourinho.
“We have a lot of players playing exceptionally well in the area of the pitch that Wayne plays,” Southgate told thefa.com.
“I said last time (in
March) that he was a bit short of matches -- he’s had some matches now but we’ve got players that have done really, really well for us in Adam Lallana and Dele Alli.
Home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sauntered into the semifinals of the Lyon Open with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Russian youngster Karen Khachanov on Thursday. The second seed needed little more than an hour to overwhelm his opponent, dropping only six points on serve. He will face Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili in the semis after he knocked out Argentine qualifier Nicolas Kicker 6-3 6-1.
Top seeded Canadian Milos Raonic continued his impressive recent claycourt form as he moved into the last four by seeing off qualifier Gastao Elias 6-4 6-3.
Refusing to budge from their three-point demands, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal said they are waiting for a response from AIFF and did not submit the bid document for their induction into the Indian Super League football. “We (Bagan and East Bengal) have not submitted the bid document. We are waiting for the AIFF’s response. We are not wilting under any pressure tactics,” Bagan secretary Anjan Mitra said. With the launch of Suzuki Gixxer Cup, young riders from across the country will get an opportunity to compete in the Rookie Cup in Spain, which is a first step towards the more popular MotoGP circuit. Sanjay Sharma, head of Motorsport JK Tyre, said, “We have joined hands with Suzuki to promote the event at the grassroots.” he added. The inaugural Gixxer Cup will be held at Coimbatore in July. The event is divided into two groups -above 16 and 12-16 years age. England captain Eoin Morgan’s fine century laid the platform for a 72-run win over South Africa in the day/night first one-day international at Headingley on Thursday. Victory over the Proteas, the world’s numberone ranked ODI side, gave England a morale boost just a week before they host the Champions Trophy tournament featuring the world’s top eight 50-over sides and put them 1-0 up in this three-match series.
South Africa, set 340 to win, made steady progress while the experienced Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis shared a second-wicket stand of 112.