Liverpool have confirmed Hugo Ekitike has sustained a serious Achilles injury and will miss this summer’s World Cup with France.

The 23-year-old was injured during the first half of Tuesday night’s 2-0 Champions League quarter-final second-leg defeat by Paris St Germain at Anfield and the full extent of the injury became clear on Wednesday.

France boss Didier Deschamps revealed Ekitike would have to sit out the World Cup and Liverpool have now revealed scans confirm a rupture of the Achilles tendon.

“Liverpool FC can confirm Hugo Ekitike has sustained a serious Achilles injury,” the Premier League club said in a statement on Thursday.

“The forward had to be substituted during the first half of Tuesday’s Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield after a slip on the turf.

“Scans on the issue have subsequently confirmed a rupture of the Achilles tendon.

“Ekitike will therefore be sidelined for the remaining weeks of the club season and unable to participate at this summer’s World Cup with France.

“Further updates will be provided at the appropriate time, with Hugo receiving the full support of everyone at LFC.”

Ekitike, a £69million summer signing from Eintracht Frankfurt, was carried from the field on a stretcher, 31 minutes into Tuesday’s game.

He has scored 17 goals in all competitions for Liverpool this season and become a firm favourite with Reds’ fans.

The 2026 World Snooker Championship takes place at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield from 18 April to 4 May – and you can watch every shot of the tournament live on the BBC.

Zhao Xintong, who became the first champion from China by beating Mark Williams in last year’s final, will get the 17-day tournament under way against qualifier Liam Highfield at 10:00 BST on Saturday.

Zhao is one of a record 11 players from China in the field of 32, beating the previous high of 10 from last year.

Ronnie O’Sullivan hopes to win a record eighth world title at the age of 50 – 25 years after claiming his first – to finally move clear of Stephen Hendry as the championship’s most successful player.

World number one Judd Trump will aim to lift the trophy for the second time, while other contenders include four-time champions Mark Selby and John Higgins, three-time winner Mark Williams and 2024 champion Kyren Wilson.

There are four debutants including England’s Stan Moody, 19, and Liam Pullen, 20.

This year is the 50th championship to be held at the Crucible since the tournament moved to Sheffield in 1977.

The two-day final starts on 3 May, with the winner taking home £500,000.

He will need to win 71 frames over four matches to lift the trophy.

For the last five weeks, nine out of ten NFL mock drafts have featured Oregon Safety Dillon Thieneman to the Minnesota Vikings. Only very recently has the mock-draft community begun to diversify. Among those examples is The Ringer‘s Todd McShay, formerly of ESPN. connecting Minnesota to Washington wide receiver Denzel Boston in Round 1.

McShay may have reopened Minnesota’s WR debate at No. 18.

Fans shouldn’t rule out a WR pick, and one week before the draft, McShay is all over it.

Why a Receiver at No. 18 Has Real Traction

The idea sounds jarring, though the logic is easy to find.

McShay: Boston to MIN at No. 18

Passing on Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq and Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy, McShay rolled with Boston to Kevin O’Connell’s team.

He defended the selection, “The Vikings had real issues catching the football last season, and the situation hasn’t exactly improved. With Jalen Nailor now in Las Vegas, they’re currently planning to give Tai Felton and his three rookie receptions a starting role. That’s a problem.”

“This pick might feel a bit rich for Boston, but based on conversations I had with a couple of teams over the weekend, the gap between him, KC Concepcion, and Omar Cooper Jr. isn’t nearly as wide for some teams as the draft community may think. It really comes down to stylistic preference, and for Minnesota, the need is clear: a big, physical outside receiver to complement Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Boston fits that mold perfectly.”

It’s the first prominent mock draft to link Boston to the Vikings.

Boston’s Rookie Profile

Boston is 6’4″ and 210 pounds. He’s 22 and ran a 4.6 forty at the NFL Combine. The Washington alumnus is a deep-ball killer, touchdown scorer, and yards-after-catch guy on top of it all. On the downside, he might struggle to beat man coverage early in the pros, and the 4.6 speed obviously isn’t dazzling.

At Washington in the last two seasons, Boston tabulated 125 receptions, 1,715 yards, and 20 touchdowns.

NFL Draft Buzz on Boston: “Boston isn’t going to run past NFL corners with pure speed, and his decision to skip the 40-yard dash at Washington’s pro day only adds to the questions about his long speed. When a receiver with his profile chooses not to run, evaluators notice.”

“The vertical jump improvement to 37.5 inches at the pro day was a nice touch, reinforcing the short-area explosiveness, but it doesn’t answer the straight-line concerns. Still, he plays the position with intelligence and physicality that should translate.”

The Vikings don’t have many tall receivers, and Boston would instantly fix that.

NDB added, “The adjustment period at the next level will center on his release package and ability to defeat press coverage consistently. Physical NFL corners will test him early, and he’ll need more variety and craftiness off the line to avoid getting rerouted.”

“The speed questions won’t go away until he proves it on Sundays, and that’s a fair concern for a receiver being discussed in the first-round conversation. That said, his ball skills are dependable, his competitive makeup suggests he’ll put in the work, and he has the tools and mentality to develop into a productive starter who wins his share of one-on-one opportunities.”

Yes, a WR Could Be the Pick

Some fans will see wide receiver for the Vikings in mock drafts and think, “What are we even doing?” On the surface, that’s a fair assessment.

However, Justin Jefferson’s guaranteed money runs out after 2026, Jalen Nailor no longer works for the Vikings, Jordan Addison’s off-the-field patterns are sketchy, and no one knows if last year’s rookie, Tai Felton, is any good. Then, that’s it for Vikings wide receivers.

The position is not an urgent need, but the case for a Round 1 wideout in Minnesota is not silly. Also remember that Minnesota has a rich, rich history of drafting wide receivers. It’s the Vikings’ thing.

Other Frontrunners

If you want the Vikings to pick a wide receiver next week, with the plan for that man to contribute sooner rather than later, but Boston isn’t quite the guy, then the draft list looks like this with one week to go:

• Makai Lemon (USC | R1)
• Jordyn Tyson (Arizona State | R1)
• Omar Cooper Jr. (Indiana | R1)
• Kevin Concepcion (Texas A&M | R1)
• Chris Bell (Louisville | R2)
• Chris Brazzell (Tennessee | R2)
• Germie Bernard (Alabama | R2)
• Zachariah Branch (Georgia | R2)
• Antonio Williams (Clemson | R3)
• Malachi Fields (Notre Dame | R3)
• Elijah Sarratt (Indiana | R3)
• Ted Hurst (Georgia State | R3)
• Skyler Bell (UConn | R3)
• Bryce Lance (North Dakota State | R3)
• Deion Burks (Oklahoma | R3)
• Ja’Kobi Lane (USC | R4)
• Brenen Thompson (Mississippi State | R4)
• De’Zhaun Stribling (Mississippi | R4)

The Vikings have reportedly met with Williams, Hurst, and Stribling.

Boston will turn 23 in December.

Since the first NFL Draft in 1936, a total of 376 players from schools in the West have been taken in the First Round.

USC leads all 25 schools with 88, followed by UCLA with 37, Washington with 31, Arizona State and Cal with 27, Stanford with 25, Colorado with 25, and Oregon with 24.

All others have less than 20.

Here are tables of all the players from the region for each school that has had players drafted in the First Round.

You’ll find a breakdown of the picks by program in a table at the bottom.

My draft philosophy as a GM was always to take the best player available, regardless of position, in the first three rounds, with the exception that we would not draft a quarterback if we already had a franchise QB on the team (unless we had a QB in his mid-to-late 30s).

That was the case when the Vikings picked Tommy Kramer in the 1977 first round despite having Fran Tarkenton coming off his ninth Pro Bowl season, in which we were a Super Bowl team, but Tarkenton was 37 years old at that juncture.

In the fourth through seventh rounds, I planned to fortify positions of need unless there was a player with a superior grade at a position we didn’t consider a need.

How the Board Could Fall for Minnesota by Round

For this week’s exercise, let’s assume the Vikings go into each round of next week’s draft with two players graded equally, with one of them at a position of current need and the other not.

Here’s how I would have it play out in this scenario as a best-case result based on need:

Round 1: Safety

While I think center is the Vikings’ biggest need, it appears there won’t be a center rated high enough to take at No. 18 overall in the first round, so a second-round center is the more likely path for the Vikings.

Brian Flores needs an athletic, astute young safety to become an immediate starter. I believe the team wants Harrison Smith to return for at least one more year after he finished strongly last season.

A first-round safety should start alongside Smith (if he returns) and Josh Metellus and ahead of Metellus — who is limited in coverage — if the Vikings go with two starting safeties. Theo Jackson should not be a starter in this defense as his tackling and coverage skills are lacking.

Caleb Downs from Ohio State is the consensus top safety in the draft and is a likely top-12 pick. But Dillon Thieneman from Oregon should be close to Downs on many teams’ draft boards, and the 21-year-old Thieneman has been the player most connected to the Vikings in the majority of mock drafts I’ve seen (not that these almost always wrong mock drafts should ever be taken seriously).

In this case, I think Thieneman makes sense as one of the fastest-rising players over the past few months of the Combine, Pro Day, and team visits.

Thieneman is good in run support and excellent in coverage. He had 92 tackles and two interceptions for a final four Ducks team in 2025. In 2023 at Purdue, Thieneman had 106 tackles and six picks and followed it up with 104 tackles and 4.5 tackles-for-loss in 2024 for the Boilermakers.

He ran a blazing fast 4.35 40 at the Combine to solidify his middle of the first-round status.

Round 2: Center

There’s a decent chance the Vikings look to grab a defensive tackle in the second round, but center seems to be the bigger need after the retirement of Ryan Kelly. Kevin O’Connell says Blake Brandel will get the first shot to be the starting center, but he’s only played the position in a handful of games last season and seems better suited to be the swing guard and tackle who steps in for an injured starter. Michael Jurgens is a backup center at best.

A solid young center who can be a capable starter in his rookie season would make the Vikings’ offensive line one of the league’s better units (especially if top tackles Christian Darrisaw and Brian O’Neill can stay healthy).

Several intriguing and highly-rated centers in this draft could be available in the second round at No. 49. Iowa’s Logan Jones catches my attention as a very experienced player (50 college starts) who can excel in a zone and movement-based running scheme. Other possibilities as Day 2 (second or third round) picks include Connor Lew from Auburn, Sam Hecht of Kansas State, and Florida’s Jake Slaughter.

Round 3 (two picks, No. 82 overall and No. 97 overall): Defensive Line and Wide Receiver

The Vikings released starting DTs Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave this offseason. Jalen Redmond is a solid ascending player at one defensive line spot, and recent Day 3 draftees Levi Drake Rodriguez and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins have shown promise. The Vikings need another talented defensive lineman, either a starter or a rotational player, who can stop the run and push the pocket in the pass rush.

Top of the pre-draft charts are Peter Woods (Clemson), Kayden McDonald (Ohio State), Christen Miller (Georgia), Caleb Banks (Florida), and Lee Hunter (Texas Tech). Perhaps one of them will slip to No. 82, but it’s doubtful. This year’s draft is deep on the D-line, so there are plenty of other prospects for the Vikings to choose from, and if the grades are there, they should grab a young DT/DE with their first of two third-round picks.

Then, with the extra third-round pick, they should take a wide receiver who has a great college resume of solid production to potentially replace the departed Jalen Nailor as the third wide receiver.

Tai Felton was a third-rounder last season who played only 46 offensive snaps and had only three catches for 25 yards so the team needs to bring in a quality receiver to compete with and likely overtake Felton (and Myles Price could have a shot at this spot plus there have been some DeAndre Hopkins rumblings as a possible post-draft free agent signing considering his history of production with Kyler Murray).

The colleges are producing lots of speedy, athletic wide receivers, and there will be a bunch of good ones available at Pick No. 97. The Vikings should grab one if the grades are equal to other top players on their board at the time.

Round 5: Cornerback

It would not be a surprise if the Vikings pick a corner with one of their earlier picks, even possibly in the first round. They have Byron Murphy, Isaiah Rodgers, and free agent signee James Pierre as their top three corners, and Flores often utilizes only two corners with a safety taking on the third corner role.

Dwight McGlothern had an impressive rookie season in 2024 and seemed to be trending toward more playing time in his second season, but it didn’t turn out that way, even after projected third corner Jeff Okudah was injured and played in only six games last season.

The Vikings need more young depth at corner, so I’ve got them grabbing one at Pick No. 163 in the fifth round.

Round 6: Running Back

The Vikings are running it back with Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, and Zavier Scott as their three leading backs, and that’s not a bad thing, as they constitute a quality and proven group of backs with dual-purpose skill. The Vikings could use an explosive young back with quickness in the hole, burst, and breakaway speed.

That’s not easy to find later in the draft, but there should be some interesting potential running backs in the later rounds, and with Jones probably in his last season with the Vikings, this is the year to grab a young back they hope to develop into an impact player.  

Round 7 (three picks): OT/OG, DT, CB 

We know injuries have hit the Vikings’ offensive line hard in recent years, and the replacements for the starters—especially at the tackle spots—have usually been shaky. The Vikings should find a late-round gem among their Day 3 picks who can be groomed as capable backups on the O-line at tackle and guard.

They also should continue to build quality depth at defensive tackle/defensive end and at corner by hitting on these late-round picks.

Jeff Diamond is a former Vikings GM, former Tennessee Titans President and was selected NFL Executive of the Year … More about Jeff Diamond

Slough, Great Britain | 14–18 July 2026

Ireland’s schedule for the COED Slowpitch European Championship has officially been confirmed, with the Irish side facing a demanding nine-game round-robin campaign across four intense days of competition.

Taking place in Slough, Great Britain, the tournament will see Ireland go head-to-head with the best slowpitch nations in Europe, with consistency, squad depth, and recovery all set to play a crucial role.

Opening Day Challenge

Ireland get their campaign underway on Tuesday, 14 July, starting bright and early against Norway (8:45am). Later that afternoon, they return to action against Czechia (3:00pm), in what will be a quick turnaround on day one.

A strong start will be key, as early wins can build momentum in such a condensed schedule.

Busy Wednesday Schedule

Wednesday represents the toughest test of endurance, with Ireland facing three matches in one day. They begin against Lithuania (9:00am), followed by Austria (2:45pm), before closing out the day with a crucial evening clash against Belgium (7:00pm).

This stretch could define Ireland’s position in the standings, particularly if they can string together multiple wins.

Key Fixtures on Thursday

On Thursday, 16 July, Ireland face Guernsey (10:45am) before taking on one of the tournament’s strongest sides, Germany (2:45pm).

The Germany clash stands out as one of the defining fixtures of the group stage, with potential implications for semi-final qualification.

Final Round-Robin Matches

Ireland wrap up their group campaign on Friday, 17 July, taking on Poland (3:00pm) before a high-profile meeting with hosts Great Britain (6:45pm).

Facing the home side in the final match adds extra intensity, particularly if qualification or seeding is still undecided.

Full List of Ireland Fixtures

• Norway
• Czechia
• Lithuania
• Austria
• Belgium
• Guernsey
• Germany
• Poland
• Great Britain

Championship Weekend

Following the round-robin phase, Saturday, 18 July will host the placement games and finals, culminating in the Championship Game at 5:00pm.

If Ireland can navigate a challenging schedule and build momentum throughout the week, they will give themselves a strong opportunity to compete for a medal.

Conclusion

With nine games in four days, Ireland’s campaign will demand resilience, squad rotation, and consistent performance. A fast start and strong finish could be the difference between a mid-table finish and a place in the final.

The fixtures are now set — it’s time for Ireland to deliver on the European stage.

LiveScores Now Available at IrishScores.com