WHAT’S HOT WHAT’S NOT

HOT STEVEN GERRARD

ANOTHER win over Celtic and another step towards Rangers’ first top-flight title in 10 years. They are currently unbeaten and 19 points clear — it is a mauling. Plenty questioned his right to get a first managerial gig at that level and he has come up with a pretty good answer. You sense Liverpool are watching with ever-growing enthusiasm.

STEVIE WARD

AGED 27, the Leeds Rhinos captain has quit rugby league because of his concussions and his awareness of what they can lead to. Considering how many athletes play on with fears over their long-term brain health, we can safely assume he will inspire others to make the same brave, life-altering choice.

GERWYN PRICE

NOT always the easiest chap to like, apparently. But what a darts player and what a tale, given he was still playing professional rugby in 2014 and is now the world champion of something entirely different.

NOT DAKAR RALLY

THE difficulty with flogging your product to Saudi Arabia is that it makes you vulnerable to iffy headlines. Especially when you are a car race in a country where women could not drive until 2018. Even more so this week, when it passed within a few hundred yards of Riyadh’s Al-Ha’ir prison, which houses Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent female activist who once protested about that very issue.

COVIDIOTS

BENJAMIN MENDY, Giovani Lo Celso, Erik Lamela, Sergio Reguilon, Manuel Lanzini, Luka Milivojevic and Aleksandar Mitrovic — a talented group of muppets. Footballers often get an unfair deal in public opinion, but these latest failings have played right into the worst stereotypes.

ION TIRIAC

HE IS the 81-year-old owner of the Madrid Open tennis tournament who, as a player, once reached No 8 in the world. More recently, he got into a discussion about Serena Williams’s mobility around the court and said, due to her ‘age and weight’, she should show some ‘decency’ by retiring. A few might think he should heed his own advice.