Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says he has never been “so angry” as when defender John Stones was injured in an England friendly before the club’s Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid last season.

Stones, 30, was forced off with an abductor muscle problem after just 10 minutes of England’s 2-2 draw against Belgium in March.

The injury came just four days after the centre-half had played the full 90 minutes in a friendly defeat by Brazil, and meant Stones was only able to start one of the two legs against Madrid.

City captain Kyle Walker will miss Wednesday’s Champions League game against Sparta Prague having returned from England’s recent camp with a knee injury – which led Guardiola to outline his frustration at the Stones situation.

Guardiola said: “I was never so angry than in that moment. Never before was I so disappointed.

“It was a friendly game and we were playing quarter-finals against Real Madrid and in the Premier League to try to win it.

“It was a friendly game [with England], so for players to come back injured… I didn’t like it at all.”

Stones started the first leg and came on as a substitute a week later for the second as the tied ended 4-4 on aggregate, with holders City eliminated in a penalty shootout.

England boss Gareth Southgate defended his decision to play Stones in two consecutive games, saying it was “not about overload”, external as the defender had not played in two weeks.

City and Spain midfielder Rodri said in September that footballers were close to going on strike because of fixture demand, with the 28-year-old rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament later that week.

Walker, 34, missed City’s last-gasp victory over Wolves on Sunday because of a knee injury sustained on England duty and remains unavailable.

“Before when I was a player, the national team manager called the clubs, now nobody talks,” Guardiola added.

“Maybe the physios talk but the managers never. In the first or second season with Gareth [Southgate] yes, but now no.

“I know the players don’t want to get injured, I always encourage them to go to the national team, it’s a pleasure, but if it’s a friendly game you cannot come back injured, I’m sorry.

“We are well-paid here, the club pays us, not the national teams. Sometimes you have to respect the clubs. In friendly games you cannot be injured. You can play, absolutely, but you cannot come back injured.”

Dakar Rally winners Toby Price and Sam Sunderland will switch from the motorcycle category to cars to contest the 2025 edition together in January. 

The pair will be aboard an Overdrive Racing Toyota Hilux T1+ for the gruelling Saudi Arabian rally raid from 3-17 January. 

Price, who won Dakar in 2016 and 2019, will have Sunderland as his co-driver after the Australian was left without a ride as KTM did not renew his contract for 2025. 

He said on social media: “I am excited to announce that we are going to Dakar in January. Super excited for this chance, we are going to be with Overdrive and going to jump in a T1+ car and see what we can do.

“The other good news is I’ll be teaming up with a good mate Sammy Sunderland, who will sit beside me and see what we can come up with. It’s going to be super exciting and a lot of hard work for us.”

Price and Sunderland are looking to join Hubert Auriol, Stephane Peterhansel and Nani Roma as the only individuals to have won the Dakar in both a car and bike. 

Briton Sunderland, who retired from motorcycle racing in August having won Dakar in 2017 and 2022, said: “Me and Pricey are heading to Dakar. Even to say it out loud sounds pretty wild.

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“I remember the days in Dakar, we’d sit in the camp after a long, rough day on the bike chatting about how nice it would be sat in a car.

“It always seemed pretty far-fetched but here we are. Super grateful for all the boys that have put some effort into getting this across the line, it’s a massive help for us and something that I’m really grateful for and hopefully we can do it justice.”

Toyota won the Dakar in 2022 and 2023 with Nasser Al-Attiyah, now part of the Prodrive-run Dacia Sandriders team.

The works Toyota Gazoo Racing roster for 2025 is likely to comprise Lucas Moraes/Armand Monleon and Seth Quintero/Dennis Zenz, who contested the recent Rallye du Maroc that concluded the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship season.

Defending Dakar winner Carlos Sainz Sr will drive for Ford, having won the 2024 edition with Audi, as the Blue Oval enters its new Raptor T1+. 

SON HEUNG-MIN (£5.1m) returned from injury at the weekend and marked his comeback with a 13-point haul at West Ham’s expense.

Tottenham went 1-0 down to their London rivals in Saturday’s early kick-off but stormed back to win 4-1 with their captain contributing to three of his side’s goals in one way or another during an eight-minute blitz in the second half.

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Son played a smart pass to Destiny Udogie (£3.3m) who in turn set up Yves Bissouma (£2.5m) for the hosts’ second goal.

Three minutes later, it was the South Korean superstar’s shot that forced Jear-Clair Todibo (£2.5m) and Alphonse Areola (£2.4m) into an awkward mess of limbs that resulted in an own goal.

And just two minutes later, Son capped the victory with a trademark goal of his own from the left flank.

From a Dream Team perspective, the 32-year-old was perhaps slightly fortunate to be credited with a ‘fantasy assist’ by stats providers Opta for his contribution to Areola’s own goal but it could be argued he made his own luck with a bright all-round performance.

A reminder that Dream Team lock in scores relating to Opta’s data 12 hours after the final whistle for every relevant fixture – we bow to their wisdom on such matters.

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The broader point is that Son’s performance should have put Dream Team managers on notice.

Naturally, his ownership plummeted when he was injured – he missed three games across Gameweeks 6 and 7 – but a 13-point haul upon his return should spark more than a few transfers.

Spurs’ long-serving No7 has scored four goals and provided three assists in eight outings this season for a return of 63 points.

His average of 7.9 points-per-game is only bettered by Erling Haaland (£8.9m), Mohamed Salah (£7.4m) and Nicolas Jackson (£4.3m) among forwards.

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With the three points secured, Ange Postecoglou opted to substitute Son at the 70-minute mark on Saturday and to what extent he features against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League on Thursday night remains to be seen.

But as it stands, Son has to be considered a decent option for Gameweek 9 when Spurs will take on Crystal Palace (Premier League) and Manchester City (Carabao Cup).

The Eagles are one of just four top-flight teams yet to win a league game in 2024/25 and currently find themselves 18th in the table.

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Spurs have not been infallible by any means and their capitulation at Brighton before the international break will linger long in the memory but they have now won six of their last seven games in all competitions.

Plus, only Man City have scored more league goals than Postecoglou’s adventurous side at this stage.

As a proven performer, Son has to be considered an appealing option now he’s available again, especially given his side’s attack-first approach.

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The light heavyweight division might crown a new No. 1 contender at UFC 308 when Magomed Ankalaev faces Aleksandar Rakic, but recently retired UFC veteran Matt Brown believes 205-pound champion Alex Pereira should hold out hope for another option instead.

As much as Ankalaev appears to be the rightful challenger with a 12-fight unbeaten streak, Pereira has options available to him after defending his belt three times in 2024, which included stepping up when the UFC needed him on a couple different occasions. Because Pereira likely has enough sway right now to call his shot for what comes next, Brown says the Brazilian champion should just wait a few weeks to see if Jon Jones gets through Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 and find out of that’s a fight that could be available for him.

“You wait,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Everybody’s correct. The person that loses in all of this unfortunately is Ankalaev. He’s done all the right things, especially if he goes out and beats Rakic, does all the right things and he gets f*cked and it’s not even a big name or anything. But yeah, if you’re Alex Pereira, you don’t need to give a f*ck about Ankalaev’s life. You’re dealing with your own shit.

“You absolutely go up to heavyweight, 100 percent. There’s never been a three-weight champion so be the first or shoot for those stars. You can always come back and fight Ankalaev later. Absolutely go for it.”

Having already conquered the light heavyweight and middleweight divisions, Pereira has teased his interest in potentially moving to heavyweight but admitted after his most recent win over Khalil Rountree Jr. that the process would take some time.

Despite his height and large frame, Pereira still needs to add some more size and muscle to deal with much bigger opponents but a chance to tangle with arguably the greatest fighter of all-time might be too tempting to resist.

On the flipside, Jones has teased that his fight against Miocic could be the final appearance of his career. Still, Brown can’t help but wonder if the potential for a matchup against Pereira might just be exactly the kind of opportunity that keeps the reigning UFC heavyweight champion around for a little while longer.

“I don’t doubt this could be as big as any Conor [McGregor] fight,” Brown said. “This could be promoted to the max. They could do it [International] Fight Week or one of the gigantic cards maybe at the Sphere, something crazy. This could be enormous. Jon’s a smart guy. He’s here for the money now, I think. Legacy and money and Alex is going to bring that. It could be promoted as much as you want to promote. This could be the money fight. It’s heavyweight, too. Heavyweight fights always bring a stigma to them that those lighter fights just don’t bring. Like Conor obviously brought the trash talk and all the antics, the funny stuff and the cool stuff, there’s a certain aura when Conor comes into the cage.

“But there’s a different aura that can be sold here when Jon Jones, the greatest of all-time, who just beat the greatest heavyweight of all-time — assuming that happens — fighting another guy trying to do the biggest thing of all-time, [become] a three-weight world champion. I can’t think of a bigger fight outside of Conor, but I think it could be as big as any Conor fight.”

With Jones scheduled to fight Miocic in November, Brown pitched the idea that Pereira should be front and center for that matchup to start building towards an eventual showdown next year.

Pereira staring a hole through Jones might not materialize into a fight but Brown feels like it’s too enticing of an opportunity to pass on given the current landscape in the UFC.

“Be there at [Madison Square Garden] and whatever happens, happens. As long as Jon wins, we can set this up,” Brown said. “Usually when the main event ends, we all turn it off or people start leaving the stadium. Alex Pereira walks in there, people might turn around and go back to their seat.

“If Jon goes out there and wins, the stars have f*cking aligned perfectly to have a super explosion. Again, I think it could be the biggest fight since Conor. I think it could match Conor’s [fights]. How much fun could you have with the promoting of this? So many routes you could take. So many angles you could take. What two perfect guys to be promoting, too. I love listening to Jon Jones talk shit. He’s so stoic with it, serious and Alex is the perfect rival to it. The perfect guy to talk back. The press conferences, everything about this just says money in the bag.”

That said, Brown heavily favors Jones to win should that fight actually happen but perhaps an even bigger obstacle to that potential matchup awaits at UFC 309.

“Realistically though, it’s hard to think that Jon Jones make this a pretty easy fight [with Alex Pereira],” Brown said. “Take him down, elbow his face, get your money, go home, probably not a scratch on you. It’s hard to believe that’s not how this ends.

“Jon Jones has got to get through Stipe first. Let’s not forget that. Stipe is not a walkover. Stipe is not an easy fight. He’s got to get through him first. [Jon Jones] hasn’t been tested like that at heavyweight. Don’t discount Stipe shocking everybody and being like “f*ck your Jon Jones-Alex Pereira fight.’”

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

Off-spinner Bashir’s father was born in Pakistan and his mother in the UK. Both of leg-spinner Ahmed’s parents were born in Pakistan. His older brother Raheem has been on the books of Rehan’s county Leicestershire, while 16-year-old younger brother Farhan took 10 wickets on his first-class debut for Nottinghamshire in August.

Though Ahmed did not play in the first Test, when England piled on 823-7 declared, his father Naeem was at the game.

Bashir: “Obviously Pakistan is our heritage. I was born in England, so I’ve always been an England fan. Whenever Pakistan played India or whoever, I supported Pakistan. I loved watching the Ashes and highlights of England cricket. Pakistan was my second team.”

Ahmed: “Growing up in England, England was my first team, but I do really like the Pakistan team and I used to watch them a lot. It’s my second home. My grandma and dad’s brothers all live here and I saw my grandma last night. I’ve got a big family here and it was nice to see them.

“In that first Test when we got 800 against Pakistan, my dad left the stadium and went back home, four hours away, because he couldn’t see his team getting anything.

“He tries to hide that he doesn’t care, but I can tell that he doesn’t want his team to lose. He always want us to do well, but he doesn’t want us to do that well where his team ends up losing.”