Wigan hooker Kruise Leeming, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra:

“What a night, what an occasion for us.

“I know the scoreline blew out a little bit there but we’ve worked so hard as a team to get to this point and we deserve to enjoy this.

“It’s not about any individual game, it’s about the highs and lows and the rollercoaster we’ve been on.

“We’ve been fantastic in areas and there are areas to improve, but everything came together tonight. I know they were low on players and we get that, but we still had to go out and play our opposition and I thought we did that.”

Wigan coach Matt Peet, speaking to BBC Radio Manchester:

“It does say a lot about where we’re at in terms of consistency. It gives us a home semi-final and the players can enjoy the moment. We will celebrate and then next week we’ll start up again.

“We’ve always been a pretty consistent club, the trophies and the performances of the players speak for themselves. This team continues the attitude of winning, enjoying rugby and entertaining the fans.”

Salford head coach Paul Rowley, speaking to BBC Radio Manchester:

“We picked a young, inexperienced side to face the world champions. They approached that with excitement and enthusiasm, and I thought they displayed that in bucketloads.

“I thought the youngsters, in particular, were fantastic and competed for everything, clearly playing against a superior team in Wigan. I’m very proud of them.

“My objective is to have a fit squad going into the big games, the play-off games, and, in that respect, we were able to do that by utilising the squad and the youngsters.”

The closest we got to a potential return for Conor McGregor was the UFC 303 main event booking against Michael Chandler this past summer. And, well, as we now know, that wasn’t meant to be. Then last week Chandler moved on to a different fight, accepting a rematch with Charles Oliveira at UFC 309.

This begs the question: What is going on with McGregor? Will he ever fight again, or is he done for good?

McGregor, easily the biggest star MMA has ever seen, has been sitting on the sidelines since breaking his leg in his trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier in 2021. The Irishman has been preparing for a return for a good while, yet it just hasn’t materialized, and recently he said he feels “out of the loop” with the UFC.

MMA Junkie’s Farah Hannoun, Mike Bohn, Danny Segura, and host Gorgeous George discuss the latest with McGregor and the state of his fighting career.

Watch their discussion in the video above, and don’t miss this week’s complete episode of “Spinning Back Clique” below on YouTube.

Manchester United to offer Kobbie Mainoo new deal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Paris St-Germain consider Viktor Gyokeres and Liverpool target Virgil van Dijk replacement.

Manchester United are set to offer English midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, 19, a bumper new contract to reflect his status as a first-team star. (Fabrizio Romano on YouTube), external

Manchester United could move for Bayern Munich’s German midfielder Leon Goretzka, 29, with the futures of Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen, 32, and Brazilian 32-year-old Casemiro still in doubt. (Manchester Evening News), external

Tottenham, Chelsea and Paris St-Germain are leading the race to sign Sweden forward Viktor Gyokeres, 26, from Portuguese giants Sporting. (Caught Offside), external

Liverpool are considering Juventus and Brazil centre-back Gleison Bremer, 27, as their ideal replacement for Dutchman Virgil van Dijk, 33. (Teamtalk), external

Newcastle are monitoring 18-year-old Norwegian forward Sindre Walle Egeli, dubbed the next Erling Haaland, with West Ham, Crystal Palace, Brighton and Brentford also interested in the £25m-rated teenager. (Daily Mail), external

Bayer Leverkusen’s Dutch wing-back Jeremie Frimpong, 23, is on Chelsea’s five-man shortlist to replace English full-back Reece James, 24. (TBR Football), external

But Chelsea will not to loan out Brazilian 17-year-old winger Estevao Willian when he joins the club from Palmeiras next summer. (Goal), external

John Higgins became the second player to hit 1,000 centuries on his way to a narrow 4-3 last-16 defeat to Mark Allen in the English Open.

Ronnie O’Sullivan reached the landmark in 2019, with Higgins back on 745 three-figure breaks at the time.

But scores of 108 and 109 saw the 49-year-old draw level at 3-3 before Allen took a long and tense final frame in Brentwood.

Four-time world champion Higgins has hit 13 maximum 147 breaks in his career, again only second to O’Sullivan. His first century came in the 1992-93 season, with his most prolific campaign coming in 2021-22 when he hit 58., external

Reigning English champion Judd Trump moved to 998 centuries during his 4-2 win over Fan Zhengyi. Trump will now play another Chinese player Wu Yize in the quarter-finals.

Allen faces Chris Wakelin or Pang Junxu and Mark Selby will play India’s Ishpreet Singh Chadha, the first Indian to reach the quarter-finals of a ranking event in 11 years.

He only joined the tour at the start of last season after moving to snooker from being a professional gamer playing Counterstrike Global Offensive., external

Neil Robertson will play either Barry Hawkins or Kyren Wilson in the final quarter-final.

Cris Cyborg, the featherweight world champion,  is admired around the world for her fearlessness as a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, but the 35-year-old has fears about how body-image pressures affect young women. 

The Brazilian is preparing to defend her Bellator title against Australian Arlene Blencowe on Thursday night at the Mohegan Sun Resort in Connecticut. 

“You see a lot of girls who are not eating, [who] feel like they must be skinny,” she told Telegraph Sport. “The media, Instagram — none of it is real. They photoshop everything. You have to be happy with who you are, not with what others want you to be. I’ve had problems in my life when I was younger but I love who I am now. I take care of my body and I’m healthy.”

After 15 years in the sport, Cyborg says it is only recently that her profession is not given a second glance. “I’ve been happy with my body, but people would look at you weird. This is ten years ago. Especially when you’d say you’re a fighter, it was always a response of ‘what?’ But now fighters are commonplace.

“When I told my mum I wanted to be a fighter she thought I would end up on the street. It was a different time. My mum didn’t like it in the beginning, but once she saw it was a real sport she now likes it.”

Cyborg was the first woman in the sport to claim the “grand slam” of titles in Bellator, Strikeforce, the UFC, and Invicta, the all-female fight league. She has often blitzed through opponents, with 18 knockouts in her 22 victories. Her standing and maturity is reflected in the way she carries herself, and her work away from the cage with charities and children in Africa.

There is an aura about her. Not just of destruction, but as an ambassador for the sport.

“I think you have a lot of different types of guys and girls and they decided for themselves which body they like. I’ve always had this body, I started training when I was 12 years old,” she explained. “I think the most important thing is to feel great.

“If you carry a little more weight and feel great then that’s you. Make yourself happy. If you’re happy with yourself then it doesn’t matter what people say.

“I think women in this sport have an athletic body. I like that look and I think all the girls do. You’re in shape. I don’t think there’s difference between our bodies and other athletes’.”

Women’s MMA has exploded in recent years and Cyborg is surfing the crest of a wave which she helped to create.

“I feel so blessed to be fighting at this moment. When I started my career there were no fighters, no events. I always believed in it, though, that it would grow. Now you can see people love women’s MMA. I know it’ll grow and grow and I’m really happy to be part of this story. Yes, I believe we get respect. It grows. Once we had the opportunity we showed up.”

By dint of her success, Cyborg has become a target for every rising star, with Bellator having grown its 145lb roster into a powerful line-up. It only makes Cyborg more ambitious, more determined.

There has even been talk of an attempt to become a women’s boxing world champion. Katie Taylor, the Irish fighter who is undisputed lightweight champion, has been touted as one possible opponent. It would be a seismic match-up.

“It would be another thing for my legacy to be a world champion in boxing and MMA,” Cyborg said. “I want to show everyone you can achieve anything with hard work. You have to trust and have faith. For now, I’m not thinking about Katie Taylor. I’m not focusing on it.”

Have there been discussions with Eddie Hearn, Taylor’s promoter ?

“We didn’t talk to him but maybe Scott Coker did. I’ll let Audi Attar [her manager] decide what’s next. For sure, it’s my dream to do boxing. Katie Taylor next would be great, but I have my fight on Thursday.”

“But everyone knows boxing is a dream for me.”

Bellator 249 is live on Sky Sports Main Event from 3am on Friday morning.