ALVARO MORATA was reportedly rushed to the hospital following a nasty clash of heads in training.

The AC Milan hitman is said to have clashed heads with one of his team-mates during an aerial collision on Thursday.

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And according to reports, the 32-year-old was promptly taken to a hospital in the Legnano district of Milan to undergo scans on his heads.

But ESPN claim the former Chelsea and Real Madrid striker hasn’t suffered “a serious injury.”

He will, however, undergo further tests before giving the all-clear to return to action.

Morata is expected to remain in hospital this evening and is expected to miss the Rossoneiri’s clash trip to Cagliari on Sunday.

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LAS VEGAS – Yes, Neil Magny keeps getting matched up with the hottest rising prospects the UFC welterweight division has to offer – and yes, he loves it.

Ahead of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 247, Magny (29-12 MMA, 22-11 UFC) embraces the role he’s assumed, as the guy attempting to bump a hype train off the tracks.

At 37 years of age with 33 UFC fights under his belt, why does Magny do it?

“Notoriety. At this point, it’s all about letting it be known that you still stand to be a force in the division, so to speak,” Magny told MMA Junkie and other reporters Wednesday. “I don’t do that by fighting guys I know I can beat. I get it by going out there and challenging myself against whomever the UFC throws at me. This is yet again another example of that.

“I can easily be like, ‘Hey, do you guys have any 30-year-olds or 40-year-olds I can fight? I don’t want to fight another up-and-coming killer.’ But I know that’s not what’s going to make me happy at the end of the day. I want to challenge myself. Right now, being at the place I’m at physically, mentally, emotionally, I know I can still compete with the best guys in the world. I would honestly feel bad for myself if I were to sandbag and sell myself short by taking an opponent I know I’d beat easily.”

This time around, the challenge is Carlos Prates, a lanky sniper of a striker with massive knockout power built training with The Fighting Nerds. Prates (20-6 MMA, 3-0 UFC) has won his first three UFC fights by knockout. Saturday’s fight at the UFC Apex will be his fourth in 10 months.

“I’ve been impressed thus far,” Magny said. “He has some pretty good kickboxing matches that I’ve been able to see. He did pretty well in his MMA career. Though he’s a young guy in the UFC, the guy has 26 professional MMA fights under his belt. So he’s definitely a veteran in this sport in particular, as far as the skill sets he brings to the table. Knowing the camp that he trains at and his background, I know he’s know slouch. Though I know he’s predominantly a striker, I know he’s going to have pretty good wrestling defense, ground game, and things like that, as well. I know I have a tough test ahead of me and I can’t wait to go out there and deliver.”

In order to get the job done, Magny aims to remain level-headed. It’s as much of a mental game as it is physical.

“The biggest thing is being present,” Magny said. “I know these guys are very dangerous everywhere else. I can’t afford to be complacent at any moment in this fight. I know I’m going to be able to out there, out-strike, out-wrestle, out-grapple. I can do whatever it takes to get the job done. For me, it’s all about being present and executing at this point.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 247.

While the NASCAR playoff format has become a proverbial punching bag for people these days, and sometimes unfairly so, what happened last weekend at Martinsville is 100% a byproduct of it. The NASCAR playoffs are structured in a way so that title favorites like Kyle Larson can easily be knocked out of championship contention and drivers with so-so seasons like Joey Logano get to fight for the crown. And that’s not a knock against Logano, who has once again nailed this all or nothing format. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

And the game deserved plenty of hate after Martinsville. This wasn’t a teammate pushing another to the win at Talladega, but a blatant attempt to bend the outcome to one manufacturer or another’s will. The drivers involved weren’t even on the same team as the drivers who benefitted from shenanigans, but manufacturers have so much sway over the sport now, Ross Chastain and Austin Dillon can’t even think about taking that position from William Byron, even though they’re racers — they want to finish as high as possible. Then there’s Bubba Wallace who claimed something was wrong with his car, but obviously, NASCAR saw that claim as race manipulation as well. 

These are two problems colliding at once — the ever-tightening alignment between teams of the same manufacturer, and NASCAR’s current championship format showing the uglier side of that.

None of what happened on that final lap was racing, and it was only happening because of this format. NASCAR’s latest format forces Game 7 moments leading to these situations where drivers are put in uncomfortable positions where they have to be more worried about the playoff drivers and what’s happening in their race than what’s happening in their own. And due to how tightly aligned teams are now through manufacturer loyalty, it’s like three super teams out there — Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota — on the track at this point of the season. 

Hey, if it was the No. 48 HMS Chevy of Alex Bowman behind Byron, I feel like I’d be less frustrated with all of this. Of course a teammate is going to help, just like Ryan Blaney played blocker for Logano in the 2022 title-decider instead of going for the win himself. But why should Dillon and Chastain have to worry about Byron? Because they all drive for the same car make and that supersedes everything else in 2024. People are mad at these drivers, but what choice did they have? 

#24: William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports, Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro, #3: Austin Dillon, Richard Childress Racing, Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: John K Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images

Remember how Parker Retzlaff faced criticism because he tried to win at Daytona earlier this year? He had to publicly explain why a young driver in a car that rarely contends for race wins attempted to win a race. And why? Because his late-race push to Harrison Burton cost fellow Chevy driver Kyle Busch a win — and an automatic playoff berth. Even fans were mad!

This madness has now bled into the fanbase, who fully expect manufacturer allegiances to trump everything else in these critical races. And what what happened at Martinsville won’t stop unless NASCAR puts a stop to it. These points penalties and fines and one-race suspensions for the bad actors are not going to stop this.  Like in 2022, when NASCAR issued a penalty to Stewart-Haas Racing for the same thing. If they wanted to make a real statement, they would have thrown the No. 24 and the No. 20 out of the Championship 4 on Sunday night. SpinGate in 2013 did not end with Clint Bowyer’s penalty. NASCAR took Martin Truex Jr. — who benefitted from the interference but had nothing to do with it — and removed him from the playoffs. 

This is more about the format itself but people were shocked when Chastain chose to race for the win last year at Phoenix instead of bowing to the Championship 4 drivers. If drivers can’t race for the win, why are the non-contenders even out there “competing?” Might as well just race with the title contenders and no one else like the 2006 Cars movie. 

Eighth seed Krejcikova’s victory was bad news for Swiatek, who has been eliminated at the group stage of the WTA Finals for the first time since 2021.

Swiatek has been the dominant player on the Tour for the majority of the past two years and started this season strongly by winning the Doha, Indian Wells, Madrid, Rome and French Open titles.

However, her lofty levels have dipped in the second half of the season and allowed Sabalenka to overtake her at the top of the rankings.

In her search for answers, Swiatek decided to change coaches and replaced Tomasz Wiktorowski with Wim Fissette in the lead-up to the WTA Finals.

Improving the four-time French Open champion’s service game, and adapting her skills in a bid for more success on the quicker surfaces, are the priorities.

On a fast court at the King Saud University Indoor Arena, Swiatek struggled against Gauff on Tuesday – a straight-set defeat which ultimately proved costly.

But there were positive signs against Kasatkina. Swiatek played with more pace and intensity to sweep past the Russian, who looked undercooked after her late call-up.

“I was hitting the ball really well and picking the right shots to play faster,” said Swiatek.

Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

Joey Logano has never talked to crew chief Paul Wolfe about winning a title in 2024 in order to accomplish something only nine other NASCAR Cup Series drivers have achieved.

For the two-time Cup champion Logano, it just goes without saying. The goal every year is to win a championship, so the fact he will vie for his third Cup title Sunday at Phoenix Raceway doesn’t include the additional incentive for him to join the elite three-time champion club. 

“He hasn’t mentioned anything about it, honestly,” Wolfe said. “It hasn’t been discussed. Some guys have two, but to get three, obviously would put him in an elite group.”

Logano will look back at his career one day and see where he ranks among the all-time greats, but the only time talk of winning a third title enters the conversation is when someone mentions the Team Penske driver already has two, not what it would do for his legacy nor the company he would join.

“I can’t say I really thought of it that way,” Logano said. “My goal every year is the same — whether we’ve won one, none, five, doesn’t matter. The goal is to win the championship.

“So the conversation between me and Paul doesn’t have to happen. We know that. That’s just the end goal.”

If Logano wins his third title on Sunday, it will rank as his most unlikely. Having finished 15th in the regular-season standings, a win in the chaotic five-overtime Nashville race vaulted him into the playoffs. He then won the opening playoff race at the drafting-style Atlanta event and then used a fuel mileage strategy to win at Vegas in the semifinal round.

The Vegas victory gave him an automatic bid to race for the title at Phoenix, where the best finisher among Logano, William Byron, Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick (the entire 40-car field competes in the race itself) captures the title.

So Logano should feel a little pride. No driver since the elimination-style format started in 2014 has gone from 15th in the regular season to having a shot at the championship in the final race.

Logano, whose six Champ 4 appearances rank as the most since the inception of the elimination-style format in 2014, is sort of impressed to have another shot at the title.

“Making the Championship 4 is an accomplishment of itself,” Logano said. “Getting here is not easy. You have to have a regular season that helps set you up to get through the playoffs. And if you don’t, then you have to have a hell of a run through the playoffs and win the best races, the most important races.

“We didn’t have the best regular season. We figured out how to have a solid playoff, winning a couple of them and put ourselves in the Championship 4.”

So this is a big deal just to have a shot, right?

“It’s an accomplishment to make it, but nobody remembers who finished second last year,” Logano said. “I don’t. I don’t know who I don’t know who it was

“And so it’s all about winning is what that means. It’s great to make it, but it’s really all about winning at this point.”

Logano has made a name for himself as the driver who seems to perform the best when it matters the most. He has won in two of his five previous Champ 4 appearances, including the most recent in 2022.

“It’s about a team that never gives up, and knows that you’re never out of it,” Wolfe said. “This format, more than ever, allows for that to happen, It keeps you motivated and working hard every week because even though we’ve had a pretty up and down year and had our fair struggles, there’s still an opportunity.

“And ultimately, everyone on the team has been able to rise to that occasion and make it happen.”

If Logano and the team make it happen Sunday, not only will Logano own three titles, he’ll be just the third driver to have won three titles in the 2000s (Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart the others) and the 34-year-old will be just the fifth to accomplish it when under the age of 35.

“So I’ve got some years [to win more],” Logano said. 

Right now, the focus is just on Sunday to see if he can join Johnson, Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson and Lee Petty.

“There would pride in that absolutely,” Logano said. “I don’t know if that’s what drives me to do it, but it would be obviously a really cool piece of winning another championship.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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DANNY MURPHY has said he was left “upset” by TNT Sports’ decision to throw Noel Gallagher on co-commentary for Manchester City’s game against Sporting Lisbon.

The Oasis star surprised fans by appearing on comms alongside Darren Fletcher and Ally McCoist.

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And he soon proved to have the commentators curse as his club lost 4-1, with the first goal for the Portuguese side coming moments after Gallagher had remarked “how easy” the game had been for City.

However, the decision to hand musician Gallagher the job over an ex-professional left him “annoyed”.

Speaking on talkSport on Wednesday, Murphy said: “It would upset me. I wouldn’t want to hear that.

“Partly from a selfish perspective.

“Because I know how much work I put in and how difficult it is to try and see things, engage things, spend years watching different techniques and games to try and analyse them.

“So, yeah, that would annoy me.

“I’ve got no problem with listening to different types of people watching football, pre [or] post [match], maybe even after.

“As co-commentary, it’s neither here nor there. It doesn’t add much value for me.

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“It’s a very difficult job. I know from doing it. As a third one [like Gallagher], it’s fine.

“But there’s not much there you’re going to learn.

“I’d rather see him before or after the game, giving his little anecdotes about Pep [Guardiola] and the players. 

“He gives you something different. Some people will like it because of the novelty.

“I wouldn’t want to hear it every week, put it that way.”

Murphy has been a regular pundit on Match of the Day since retiring.