Having witnessed the revolution in National Hockey League player economics over the summer, Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson made a huge calculated bet two weeks ago when he signed Buium to an eight-year, $75-million-USD extension — about a million dollars for each of the 20-year-old’s 76 NHL games so far.
That contract is part of the league’s rapidly-changing financial landscape, although Buium was adamant on Friday that it doesn’t change him or his development path.
“I’ve said this a bunch: every guy in the NHL, every guy that plays professional sports, the most pressure comes from us — ourselves,” he said when asked if the heft of his new contract changes expectations. “I don’t really think the pressure from the outside ever gets to me.
“You always want to outplay your contract, and whether you’re making $15 million or $2 million, it doesn’t matter. I think if I can play to my capabilities and come out every night feeling like, you know, I’ve played my best, I think I will like my results. It has nothing to do with my contract; I want to be the player I want to be.”
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That attitude is partly why the Canucks were willing to go all-in on Buium, the centrepiece of the return from last December’s trade of Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild.
When Buium’s contract was announced, Johnson told reporters: “This contract isn’t about Zeev the player today or tomorrow. It’s where we see him in three, four and five years. This is now a journey and we’re going to support him.”
During the Canucks’ pre-training camp press conference this week, both Johnson and head coach Manny Malhotra re-iterated the new regime’s belief that patience is paramount to player development, and no prospect is going to be rushed to the NHL before he is ready.
But Buium is already in the NHL after splitting his rookie season between the Wild and the Canucks, and even in the final season of his original, entry-level contract, the defencemen’s development is going to be conducted in the best league in the world.
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“We’ll treat him like we would any other guy,” Malhotra insisted Friday after the second day of camp here. “There’s obviously a great deal of patience that goes into helping a young player develop at the right pace. People will look at the contract and have certain expectations, whereas for us, we continue to talk about building the foundation.
“We recognize he will make mistakes like any other young guy in this league does. But we’re just going to continue to encourage him, support him and develop his game as a whole with the mindset of: What’s he going to look like in two and three and four years?”
What Buium looks like in camp is a super-talented sophomore who can skate and move the puck but still has a lot of growing to do.
Interestingly, after playing most of his five-on-five ice time last season alongside top Canuck defenceman Filip Hronek, Buium has been partnered at training camp with 36-year-old Luke Schenn in what appears to be the third pairing.
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Malhotra has cautioned against making any conclusions about deployment based on a couple of days of camp practices, but assigning Buium to Schenn could be one sign of the organization’s patience with their prized prospect and desire to lighten any pressure that might come with signing the biggest contract in franchise history for a defenceman.
“Obviously, we all know how good a defenceman Quinn was and has become in this league, and how special he is,” Schenn told reporters on Thursday. “You don’t want to compare anyone, but obviously, Zeev has an incredible skill set and toolbox himself, too.
“Watching him from a distance when he first broke in with the Wild and how he kind of stepped in and ran that power play in the (2025) playoffs, and then watching him a little bit last year and following the trade a little bit, you can just tell how great his upside was. He understands the locker room and gets what it’s like to be a pro, and he puts in the work. Just a tonne of confidence. He’s kind of proven (himself) at every level, and he’s going to make great strides here in the NHL. We’re relying on him big time, and yeah, I feel fortunate to get to play with him.”
Incredibly, Schenn was the Canuck defenceman who shepherded Hughes into the NHL in 2019. Schenn then left the Canucks — twice — before signing as a free agent on July 1 for his third stint in Vancouver.
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“I guess when I was a young guy, I had a great mentor and guys who I played with,” Schenn said. “I played with Tomas Kaberle for a few years (in Toronto), and then Kimmo Timonen in Philly. I just remember how they treated me, and their wisdom and veteran presence, and how they rubbed off on me. Now, it’s kind of role reversed where you maybe mentor someone else. I feel like I’m the lucky guy who gets to play with these young guys.”
“He is papa bear,” Buium smiled. “He’s such an unreal human, you know? Just has so much experience around the league. He doesn’t treat me like a young guy; he just treats me like a player and a person. I think that’s something we really needed — just a guy with that presence who you can talk to at any time. He’s just one of those guys that you’re lucky to have on your team if you get to play with him.”
If Schenn does his job well, Buium may not play with him for long.
32 Thoughts: The Podcast
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.
The 12th overall pick of the 2024 draft, Buium doesn’t turn 21 until December but possesses a lot of confidence after winning senior, junior and U18 championships with Team USA, as well as a national title at the University of Denver.
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The San Diegan said his focus this summer was getting stronger and faster, but Buium also did skills work alongside Geoff Sanderson and Cutter Gauthier at a camp in Wisconsin, and spent two weeks skating in Arizona with Auston Matthews, Clayton Keller, Tage Thompson and others.
“I was just trying to pick up things and learn things from different guys,” Buium said. “I think the biggest thing I learned is, No. 1, conditioning. Everybody that can play big minutes. . . play offence and create offence, they just have a motor. And the other things are the little things. You look at Matthews, he’s always tweaking stuff with his stick and trying new things — just little things to try to get that small edge on somebody else.”
Upon his arrival with the Canucks, Buium said he wasn’t trying to be Quinn Hughes and would author his own NHL story.
But given Buium’s path so far, his team, his contract and now his defence partner, comparisons to Hughes probably aren’t going away.
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“The kind of person I am, I want to be the No. 1 guy,” Buium said. “I want to be the best I can be, up there with those guys at the top of the league. But I don’t compare myself to Quinn. I think Quinn’s in his own own class with (Cale) Makar and (Zach) Werenski and those guys. I think every defenceman in my spot is trying to reach that level.
“I guess that’s a goal for me: to kind of play my own style, be my own player, and kind of get that narrative (about Quinn) away from me.”
If he can do that, Buium will be worth the patience. And every penny.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Pebble Beach has a problem, and it took Ernie Els one swing on Friday afternoon to recognize it.
“If even I’m hitting a 3-wood all the way down there on 16, they’re going to need some length on the golf course,” Els said Friday. “Unfortunately, I know the USGA is trying to work on that golf ball, but it’s got to seriously happen quickly.”
Els was referring to the change that has everybody talking through the early portion of the week at this week’s Pure Insurance Championship: the 16th hole, where Pebble Beach removed a famous tree from the right side of the fairway and replaced it with several hundred square feet of fresh sod and a series of “ground under repair” signs.
The change was not entirely by design. According to the USGA, which will host the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach next June, and the resort, the decision to remove the tree was not strategic in nature. The tree on the side of 16th had grown diseased, and efforts by the course’s grounds crew and arborist to revive it were unsuccessful, eventually necessitating its removal a few weeks ago.
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The trees on 16 have a fabled history at Pebble Beach. They grew to fame in the early 20th century as perhaps the course’s first major design shift, a change commissioned by architects H. Chandler Egan and Robert Hunter after they were hired to spruce the course ahead of the 1929 U.S. Amateur. Egan and Chandler pushed the green on 16 back some 100 yards from its initial location, an ingenious shift that turned the grove of cypress trees into a narrow pair of goal posts framing the fairway, forcing players to hit a precise shot up the gully if they hoped to face a birdie putt.
For the better part of the next 100 years, that’s exactly how the trees remained, forcing elite players to hit a testy layup shot over the fairway bunkers but short of the trees if they hoped to convert on the hole.
Now, though, that component of the hole has changed, even for the comparatively shorter hitters of the PGA Tour Champions making their way around the golf course this weekend. According to some of the players in the field, the tree’s removal has made it easier to consider a bomb-and-gauge strategy on the famously narrow par-4, playing it down the newly opened right side and contemplating a flipped wedge from the rough into an unguarded green.
“You know, we were thinking about taking driver out and just sending it,” Ryan Armour said. “I think the long guys can really take it on if they want.”
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These changes are exacerbated by the some of the shifts in golf club technology Els highlighted, allowing pros to hit the golf ball further and straighter than ever before. Changes in driving distance have stressed Pebble Beach over the years — most recently leading to the creation of a new tee box on the 6th hole that sits behind a maintenance road, and the re-addition of a second cypress tree in the fairway on the 18th hole earlier this summer, a strategic change introduced before the 2009 U.S. Open to add teeth to the par-5 finishing hole.
If you ask the people responsible for these changes, they’ll all give you a version of the same answer: Tweaks are aimed at keeping Pebble Beach in its place at the very top of the golf course hierarchy. But not everybody admits that concerns about distance hold more weight at this golf course, in large part because it is landlocked by its own brilliant double-helix design. With so many tee boxes and greens intersecting so neatly together, there isn’t much room for new development.
This is what keeps Els awake at night: The fear that one of America’s finest championship golf courses could eventually be rendered obsolete (or ineffably changed) from its tournament origins.
“This golf course is probably, arguably, in the top five around the world,” Els said. “To be honest, it’d be a shame if the golf course becomes a little not the way it was meant to play.”
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Of course, not everybody was so convinced. At the Pure Insurance Championship, Armour and Zach Johnson both said they played the hole as they might have 10 years ago at the Crosby Clam Bake, electing to lay-up to avoid a testy wedge shot off a downslope.
“I don’t think it’s that significant a change,” said Johnson. “It’s unfortunate that the tree wasn’t in good health, and that’s what you got to do, but the integrity of the hole has not wavered.”
But when the U.S. Open comes next summer, the changes to 16 might prove more strategic. Bryson DeChambeau famously won the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot — a brutish, wide-open design — despite no shortage of punishing shots from downhill lies in the rough. He learned that on a narrow golf course, the penalty for missing the fairway by 25 yards wasn’t too much worse than the penalty for missing by two yards. With no trees to keep him from hitting driver everywhere, he did, and he blew away the field en route to his first major championship victory.
Of course, Pebble Beach would need to lose a lot more trees to wind up in the same territory as Winged Foot. The shifts to the 16th hole are not part of some grander design by the course operators, who would not rule out to GOLF that they would re-add a tree to the right side of 16 ahead of the national championship next June. The goal is not to encourage another bomb-and-gauge U.S. Open winner.
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But on Friday at the Pure Insurance Championship, Els’ point was just that: If the ball keeps traveling further, the best laid plans of even the greatest golf courses could be rendered moot.
“You know, you need to hit certain shots to certain holes,” Els said. “With the ball flying this far, this golf course is going to get hurt.”
A typhoon threat is building over Japan just as the Asian Games 2026 programme moves from a limited opening-day schedule to medal events from Sunday, raising the possibility of delays or postponements around September 21.
Japan’s chef de mission for the Games, Kosei Inoue, who is also a senior executive board member of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC), said on Thursday that organisers were preparing for possible weather-related disruptions due to Typhoon Dujuan.
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“Due to the heavy rain and severe weather, some competitions have already experienced delays or postponements, and there is also a possibility that a typhoon could approach on September 21,” Inoue told reporters. “Under these circumstances, we are holding thorough meetings within the JOC to ensure that we are fully prepared and capable of responding appropriately to the situations.”
The Asian Games officially begin in Nagoya on Saturday, September 19, but some competitions, including women’s cricket, soft tennis and teqball, had already got underway before the opening ceremony.
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Why weather is a concern for Asian Games
According to Japenese daily The Asahi Shimbun, Typhoon No 25, named Dujuan, was moving west near Chichijima island and could move towards the Pacific coast of eastern Japan on September 20-21. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the storm could turn northward and then northeastward, bringing heavy rain from eastern Japan to the northeastern Tohoku region.
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The report said rainfall over the 24-hour period through noon on September 21 could reach up to 200 mm in the Kanto region and the Izu islands. Residents along the Pacific coast from the Tokai to Tohoku regions, as well as in the Izu islands, were advised to remain alert for landslides, flooding in low-lying areas and rising river levels from September 20 to 21.
Dujuan was moving west-northwest at 40 kmph about 310 km southeast of Chichijima island on Friday. The typhoon had a central pressure of 975 hectopascals, with maximum sustained winds of 108 kmph near the centre and gusts of up to 162 kmph, the report said.
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The typhoon is expected to move east of the Kanto region by the morning of September 21. By the morning of September 22, it is forecast to move towards the ocean east of Japan and turn into an extratropical cyclone, bringing rain to Tokyo.
The forecast for Nagoya is less severe than for Tokyo, but still unsettled. Nagoya and Osaka are expected to experience mostly cloudy conditions, although the chance of rain is expected to be lower than in Tokyo.
India’s Richa Ghosh, Sree Charani and teammates during the Asian Games fourth Women’s Quarter final cricket match against Japan, in Nisshin, Japan. Photo: PTI
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India context: Women’s cricket already underway
For India, the weather watch is important because several outdoor competitions are part of the early Asian Games schedule. Women’s cricket, one of India’s key medal events, began before the official opening ceremony, with the tournament being played at Korogi Athletic Park in Aichi Prefecture.
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India’s women’s cricket team is defending the gold medal it won at the Hangzhou Asian Games. The women’s competition runs from September 17 to 22, with the final scheduled before the men’s tournament begins later in the Games.
Rain interruptions are especially significant in cricket because wet outfields and persistent showers can delay tosses, shorten matches or force no-results. With medal rounds scheduled during the period when Dujuan could influence weather across eastern Japan, organisers and teams will be watching conditions closely over the next few days.
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While there is no indication yet of a major disruption to the overall Games schedule, Inoue’s comments show that organisers are preparing for possible changes if heavy rain, strong winds or local safety advisories affect competition venues. India schedule on September 20 and 21 India’s medal and medal-round schedule during the September 20-21 weather window includes teqball bronze play-offs, wushu finals, 10m air rifle finals, a soft tennis semifinal, and the women’s cricket semifinal against Bangladesh.
Date
Sport
Event
Indian participation
Time (IST)
Medal relevance / status
01/09/20
Wushu
Men’s changquan final
Suraj Singh Mayanglambam
05:30:00
Direct medal event
01/09/20
Teqball
Women’s singles bronze medal match
Quimcy Joaquim Dsouza
06:30:00
Bronze medal match
01/09/20
Teqball
Mixed doubles bronze medal match
Quimcy Dsouza/Mohamed Anas Imran Beg
07:00:00
Bronze medal match
01/09/20
Soft tennis
Men’s team semi-final: India vs Japan
India men’s team
08:00:00
Medal-round match; winner enters final
01/09/20
Shooting
Women’s 10m air rifle final
Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Maskar, Vidarsha Vinod
10:30 am-11:15 am
Final, subject to Indians qualifying from 6:15 am qualification
01/09/20
Cricket
Women’s semi-final: India vs Bangladesh
India women’s cricket team
10:30:00
Semi-final; winner enters gold-medal match
01/09/20
Swimming
Men’s 100m freestyle final
Indian participation subject to heats
TBA
Medal event, subject to qualification
01/09/20
Swimming
Men’s 100m backstroke final
Indian participation subject to heats
TBA
Medal event, subject to qualification
01/09/21
Wushu
Women’s changquan final
Nyeman Wangsu
05:30:00
Direct medal event
01/09/21
Shooting
Men’s 10m air rifle final
Rudrankksh Patil, Parth Mane, Himanshu Dhillon
10:30 am-11:15 am
Final, subject to Indians qualifying from 6:15 am qualification
01/09/21
Swimming
Men’s 50m backstroke final
Indian participation subject to heats
TBA
Medal event, subject to qualification
01/09/21
Swimming
Men’s 50m freestyle final
Indian participation subject to heats
TBA
Medal event, subject to qualification
01/09/21
Swimming
Men’s 100m breaststroke final
Indian participation subject to heats
TBA
Medal event, subject to qualification
01/09/21
Swimming
Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay final
Indian team participation subject to heats
TBA
Medal event, subject to qualification
01/09/21
MMA
Semi-finals
Varun Sanyal/Suchika Tariyal
09:00:00
Medal-round stage, subject to progress from earlier rounds
Terence Crawford has teased a return to the ring in order to face one man in particular.
Crawford hung up the gloves in December last year following his sensational win over Canelo Alvarez three months earlier to become the undisputed super-middleweight champion.
A number of fighters have tried to tempt ‘Bud’ out of retirement since then, with WBC welterweight champion Ryan Garcia perhaps the most vocal about his desire to face the former pound-for-pound king.
It initially seemed unlikely that Crawford would entertain the offer, but that could be about to change, after the 39-year-old posted on social media to send a warning to Garcia.
“I’ll f**k Ryan Garcia up so bad people going to be calling the law on me talking about child abuse. Like why did you do that to that little boy you knew he was just talking for the entertainment. Here I am.”
Crawford followed up with a post about heading to the gym, though most fans will recognise it as tongue in cheek.
It is the latest spat between the two boxing stars, with ‘King Ry’ recently taking offence at Crawford reportedly being involved with Benn’s training camp ahead of last week’s clash with Garcia in Las Vegas.
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Despite the latest war of words, for now it still seems unlikely that Crawford will end his retirement and make a return to the ring, even despite boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh backing the fight.
Garcia is instead believed to be targeting a unification showdown with WBA welterweight champion Teofimo Lopez in 2027.
Koneru Humpy and Gukesh (Photo by Rafal Oleksiewicz and Michal Walusza from FIDE)
NEW DELHI: On Friday, the Indian women’s team, defending champions and unbeaten so far in the tournament, was paired against Greece in Round 3 of the 2026 Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. On paper, this looked routine. India, the top seeds, were expected to win the tie, and they eventually did. But the top-board clash between Koneru Humpy and Greece’s Stavroula Tsolakidou carried a subplot that had been building for a fortnight, and it turned an otherwise straightforward fixture into the day’s most closely watched game.Tsolakidou was part of Ganges Grandmasters, the eventual champions of the just-concluded Global Chess League (GCL) Season 4. It was against Humpy, playing for APL Pipers, that Tsolakidou suffered her first loss of that tournament, playing white.To turn the tables in the reverse fixture, she needed something special, and got it when coach Adhiban Baskaran handed her a folder titled “Prep for the Greek Goddess!” Working off that file, she beat Humpy with the black pieces. The moniker “Greek Goddess” became famous.The two met again in the GCL final, where Tsolakidou held Humpy to a draw in the first game and then beat her again with black in the second.A positive score over the Indian, coupled with the results on the other boards, was enough to hand Ganges Grandmasters the title, with Tsolakidou also named the Player of the Tournament.So when the pairing brought them together again on Friday, it was more than a Grandmaster-versus-International Master matchup. This time, as the format shifted from rapid to classical, the Indian veteran Grandmaster prevailed.39-year-old Humpy, with white, built her position with patience. The game began as a Nimzo-Indian structure, with Humpy choosing an ambitious setup featuring 10.b4 and 11.b5, gaining queenside space.Black’s pieces became somewhat passive, while White gradually built pressure with 14.f4, 15.Qf3 and 16.Rad1.The critical phase arrived with 21.e5, opening lines and increasing the activity of White’s pieces.After 22.bxc6 bxc6, Humpy’s knight penetrated with 23.Ne4 and 24.Nxd6, winning material and creating tactical threats.The sequence 25.Nxe8 Rxe8 26.Qxh4 left White with a significant advantage, although Black’s active queen and passed-pawn kept the doors slightly open for a comeback.Humpy maintained the initiative, coordinating her rooks and bishop. 40.e6 was particularly strong, leading to 41.Bxe6+ and 42.Rd7+.After winning the f5-bishop with 43.Bxf5, White’s material and attacking advantage became decisive. Tsolakidou resigned after 46.Rf1, capping off a perfect day for the Indian Grandmaster, who had taken a rest against Finland in Round 2.
Gukesh back to winning ways
In the open section, world champion D Gukesh made his way back to winning ways after Thursday’s rating dip below 2700, a drop that had made headlines less for its size than for whom it happened to.Playing black against Italy’s Sabino Brunello on Friday, Gukesh met a Queen’s Indian-style setup.After 4…Ba6 and 5…c5, Black immediately challenged White’s queenside structure and achieved active piece play. The game became highly tactical once Gukesh expanded with 15…g5 and centralized strongly with 17…Ne4 and 19…Nd4.Brunello tried to simplify with 21.Nxd4 and 22.Rxc8, but Black’s pieces remained more active. The key sequence began with 23…Nc3, forcing exchanges that improved Black’s bishop activity. After 25…Re5, Gukesh increased the pressure, and 26…Bxe2 won an important pawn while keeping White’s king exposed.28…Bxh3 removed a key defender, while 29…Bd4+ and 30…Re2+ drove the king into a dangerous position. 31…Qxh3 left Black with overwhelming attacking threats and a large material advantage.Although Brunello gave checks with 32.Qxg5+ and 33.Qd8+, they were only temporary. Gukesh’s queen and bishop combined to set up mating threats, and Brunello resigned after 33 moves, handing Gukesh a much-needed win and, with it, a step back towards the 2700 mark he had slipped under just a day earlier.
India’s winning streaks stay intact
The rest of India’s open team also had a strong day against Italy. Praggnanandhaa and Erigaisi both drew their games, but Nihal Sarin added another win to his growing tally, beating Francesco Sonis, as India closed out the match 3-1.For India’s women, Friday’s 3.5-0.5 win over Greece, with only Divya Deshmukh drawing her game against Anastasia Avramidou, kept an already imposing unbeaten run alive, with Humpy, Vantika Agrawal, and Savitha Shri all winning their individual games. Vaishali Rameshbabu took a rest day.Both Indian teams will be back in action on Saturday, with the open side facing Spain and the women’s team taking on Mongolia.
The French football icon named star forward Kylian Mbappé captain while opting to leave out former squad members midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni and striker Marcus Thuram. Zidane also named five new players, among them goalkeeper Guillaume Restes, defenders Andy Diouf and Jérémy Jacquet, as well as midfielder Lucas Da Cunha and striker Esteban Le Paul.
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The 54-year-old Zidane, whose brilliance helped France to win their first World Cup on home soil in 1998, returns to the national team tasked with turning recent near-misses into trophies.
Zidane enjoyed a glittering managerial career at former club Real Madrid, leading the Spanish side to three successive Champions League titles. Similar success will be expected with France, who boast some of football’s most gifted players, as they build up to the 2028 European Championship and the 2030 World Cup.
Zidane was appointed as France coach until the 2030 World Cup in July, succeeding Didier Deschamps and becoming the third member of France’s 1998 World Cup-winning team to lead Les Bleus.
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He will take charge for the first time in the Nations League group stage against Turkey in Izmit on September 25. France then travel to Belgium before hosting Italy and Belgium in October.
Maria Sharapova was recently moved to happy tears as Paula Badosa sent her a heartwarming message. After the duo met each other for the first time ever at the SP Open, they posed for a photo together and the Spaniard penned a sweet note for her lifelong idol.
Sharapova and Badosa are two of the biggest names of the WTA. While the Russian was one of the foremost stars of the Tour for two decades between 2001 and 2020, Badosa established herself as a top player in recent years. Over the course of her career, the Spaniard has been vocal about drawing inspiration from Sharapova, and the duo recently met each other in Brazil.
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Taking to Instagram to share a snap of their meeting, Paula Badosa wrote,
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“Some people inspire you from afar, and then you get lucky enough to meet them. Today was one of those moments. You’re simply amazing @mariasharapova. Little Paula made a dream come true today.”
Reacting to the sweet note, Maria Sharapova reacted with three ‘teary-eyed’ emojis.
Via @paulabadosa on Instagram
In Brazil, Badosa is currently competing at the SP Open, a WTA 250 event. The second seed has enjoyed smooth sailing at the tournament so far, ousting the likes of Justina Mikulskyte, Jazmin Ortenzi and Mary Stoiana to reach the semifinal.
When Paula Badosa opened up about Maria Sharapova being her role model
Badosa at the Berlin Tennis Open (Image Source: Getty)
Over the years, Paula Badosa has been vocal about looking up to Maria Sharapova as an idol during her childhood, admiring the Russian for her on-court exploits and her off-court personality that went beyond tennis.
In a 2020 interview with Tweener Head Tennis, Badosa hailed Sharapova as her role model, explaining,
“I have to be honest with you, she’s like a role model to me, so I try to copy her. She’s a fighter, so I really like that and as a Spanish player I really like that. Since (I was) young, that’s what they put in your mind – to fight every point – so I think that’s very important. Her game is very aggressive. We don’t play similar (games) but I try to be aggressive in my way as well.”
On the tennis end of things, Paula Badosa will next return to action for her semifinal encounter at the SP Open, where she will take on Nadia Podoroska. Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova was last seen on a tennis court at the US Open, where she presented women’s singles champion Elena Rybakina with her winner’s trophy.
Manchester United face Fulham in the Premier League this weekend and Michael Carrick says there is a chance that two players could return from injury to feature
Baleba, 22, has spent the start of this season recovering from an ankle ligament injury sustained soon after starting pre-season training with former club Brighton & Hove Albion. Shaw, 31, has missed the last three games across all competitions with a thigh injury, having started the opening three fixtures of the season.
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Both, however, are now back in contention to make the weekend’s matchday squad. Below is the latest injury news and return dates…
Amad
A return from injury before the upcoming international break appears unlikely for Amad after not being called up by the Ivory Coast for their Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers later this month. The winger is now approaching a month on the sidelines after sustaining an ankle injury during the final week of pre-season training and will seemingly have another three weeks to continue his rehabilitation.
Speaking on Tuesday ahead of the Carabao Cup third round tie against Brighton at Old Trafford, Carrick said: “Amad is not quite close, in terms of days, you know. We’ll see as the week progresses.’
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Potential return date: Tottenham Hotspur (H) on October 10.
Carlos Baleba
Approaching four months after playing his last match for Brighton against United on the final day of last season, Baleba could be about to debut for his new club at Craven Cottage. The midfielder did not feature in a single pre-season friendly for either side, so any involvement in west London would presumably be only as a substitute.
He has been back in training this week and attended the cup tie against his former employers on Wednesday. Carrick conceded on Friday that there is a chance that Baleba could be available this weekend for United’s trip down to the capital.
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Potential return date: Fulham (A) on September 20.
Luke Shaw
Carrick is also cautiously optimistic about the possibility of Shaw being back in the squad. It is approaching a fortnight since he plast played, in the 2-2 draw with Everton, where he assisted the goal Benjamin Sesko scored before being substituted minutes before Ainsley Maitland-Niles equalised at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
United’s head coach said: “There’s a kind of a chance on both of them (Baleba and Shaw), really. Not totally 100% yet, but there’s half a chance, yeah. It is really short-term, to be honest, but it’s just working towards the game, so we’ll see how he (Shaw) is come the weekend.”
Potential return date: Fulham (A) on September 20.
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Manuel Ugarte
Another player who will be spending this international break rehabilitating at Carrington rather than representing his national team is Ugarte. The Uruguay international sustained a knee ligament injury while playing for them at this summer’s World Cup, which required surgery in mid-July.
A return before the end of the season should be possible, barring any setbacks while recovering, but will not be before winter becomes spring. United have named him in their Champions League squad; however, that is seemingly because they had the space to do so, rather than any indication of when he could be back playing again for United.
Approaching a year after last featuring for United, De Ligt is training again after having lower back surgery this summer, but remains unavailable to play at this stage. United are understandably exercising caution with the Netherlands international after such a sustained layoff and are unwilling to put a date on his return, as the focus remains on keeping him fit for the foreseeable future rather than rushing him back now.
Carrick said on Tuesday: “Matta is just working his way back, really. So I don’t want to, because of how it’s been, put too much of a timeframe on it.”
Potential return date: Tottenham Hotspur (H) on October 10.
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Tom Heaton
Another player still recovering from a pre-season setback is Heaton. The veteran goalkeeper sustained a hamstring injury during the pre-season friendly against Paris Saint-Germain. Dermot Mee replaced him less than ten minutes into the second half and also deputised for the ex-England international in their Champions League match against Sabah at Old Trafford.
Senne Lammens was also backup to Karl Darlow on Wednesday against Brighton, rather than the third-choice goalkeeper coming in to give United’s number one a night off. There has been little in the way of an update about Heaton since he left the pitch in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Potential return date: Tottenham Hotspur (H) on October 10.
Quimcy Dsouza In Teqball Semi-Finals Highlights, Asian Games: India’s Quimcy Joaquim Dsouza lost the women’s singles Teqball semi-final at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya against Indonesia’s Ima Sumaya. Quimcy clinched the first set 12-7 after getting a dominating start. However, the Indonesian rival did not let the game slip away easily as she won the second set 12-9. In the third set, the 24-year-old Indian got off to a blistering start, leading 3-0 but Sumaya bounced back and snatched away the victory with a 12-7 scoreline. With this, Quimcy’s dream of reaching the final ended but the medal hope is still alive as she will be fighting for the bronze medal against Japan’s Yiuna Sakamoto on Sunday.
Follow Highlights of Quimcy Joaquim Dsouza vs Ima Sumaya Teqball Semi-Finals from the Higashi Sports Center
Pawan Sehrawat will replace Tajinderpal Singh Toor as India’s flag-bearer at the Asian Games opening ceremony in Nagoya on Saturday after the shot-putter was unable to receive his official kit in time.Sehrawat, a key member of India’s gold-medal-winning men’s kabaddi team at the previous Asian Games, will now join shooting star Manu Bhaker in leading the Indian contingent during the opening ceremony, chef-de-mission Sahdev Yadav told PTI.Toor’s absence is linked to the delayed delivery of the official kit. The 30-year-old told PTI that he was informed his kit would arrive at Nagoya airport only at 3pm, leaving him with little time to collect it and reach the ceremony venue.“I am told that my kit will reach at 3pm at the (Nagoya) airport. Reaching the opening ceremony venue after collecting my kit from airport on time will be very difficult. So, I have told IOA (Indian Olympic Association) that I am not coming for opening ceremony,” Toor told PTI.The celebrated shot-putter also revealed that the athletics contingent is yet to receive its kits, with the equipment still in India.“My kit is lying in India. Nobody in the athletics team has got their kits so far,” he revealed.The athletics team has been based at the University of Tsukuba near Tokyo since September 13 for an acclimatisation camp. The contingent is scheduled to travel to Nagoya on September 21, two days before the athletics events begin.Toor said the situation could have been different had he been informed earlier about his flag-bearer duties. He only learnt about the role on Friday, meaning his coach, who had arrived in Nagoya a day earlier, could potentially have collected the kit for him.“IOA told me yesterday about me becoming flag-bearer. Otherwise my coach who reached here yesterday could have picked it (the kit) up for me,” he said.With Toor unable to attend, Sehrawat has been handed the responsibility of carrying the Indian flag alongside Bhaker at the opening ceremony.
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