Guscoth injury sparks fear for players

Lisa Alexander, the head coach of Australia, believes the athleticism on show in Liverpool – where each team must play eight games in 10 days – is incompatible with the scheduling of the tournament.

Speaking about England’s Layla Guscoth, who suffered a tournament-ending injury on Saturday against Scotland which means Tracey Neville’s side must complete the tournament with 11 players, Alexander said: “The athletes are so highly trained now and they are extraordinarily fit and so to have to do that level day in, day out: it’s going to take its toll.

“You are going to get injuries – I’m not saying that’s the reason Layla was injured, but it certainly doesn’t help.”

Reigning champions Australia inflicted a 99-24 drubbing on Sri Lanka yesterday to set the highest goal tally of the tournament so far, after overcoming a slow start.

Elsewhere, Scotland produced a valiant performance against

Uganda but fell short, losing 52-43. Gail Parata’s side are yet to win a game in Liverpool and will face South Africa today in the second preliminary round of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe fans were out in their force again at the M&S Bank Arena to watch their side locked in a close battle with

Northern Ireland. Egged on by the singing and dancing of their spectators, it was enough to help the tournament newcomers to edge out Dan Ryan’s side 51-49.

Zimbabwe’s win meant they took second place in the group behind Australia.

“I’m pretty gutted,” said Northern Ireland captain Caroline O’hanlon. “We gave it everything but made too many errors.

“We’ll have to go back and look at the breakdown, but we made errors across the four quarters and they were costly at the end. The game was there for the taking and we should have closed it out.”

Among the other main tournament contenders, South Africa pipped Jamaica 55-52, while New Zealand beat Singapore 89-21.