Both Arne Slot and Pep Guardiola have given injury updates ahead of Manchester City vs Liverpool in the FA Cup

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City have been given significant Liverpool injury updates ahead of the FA Cup quarter-final clash at the Etihad Stadium. The visitors had fitness doubts about four players, both before and throughout the international break, with optimism growing over Alexander Isak’s return in the coming weeks following Slot’s latest assessment.

Speaking on Friday, he said: “It will definitely be too fast to expect him in the starting line-up. He trained with us yesterday for the first time, and today, for the second time after exactly 101 days. So, it will take a bit of time… we will make sure we do the right thing in terms of building him up.”

Mohamed Salah is among those who could feature from the off at the Etihad Stadium, with Slot offering an encouraging update after the Egyptian missed both the defeat to Brighton and international duty.

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The Liverpool boss said: “He is [fit]. He trained with us yesterday, he will train with us today and is available for the game tomorrow.”

There was further positive news regarding Federico Chiesa and Jeremie Frimpong following their respective stints with Italy and the Netherlands.

Chiesa returned to Liverpool ahead of schedule, while Frimpong was withdrawn just 13 minutes after coming on against Ecuador due to a potential injury concern. However, Slot confirmed both players were back in training on Thursday.

The 47-year-old was unable to offer encouraging news on Alisson, however, with the shot-stopper set to sit out Liverpool’s next four fixtures at minimum with a hamstring problem.

Slot said: “He will not be part of the Paris Saint-Germain games as well. He will be out for a bit longer. Towards the end of the season, we expect him to be fit again.”

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Alisson had only recently come back from a brief spell out but is now sidelined once more alongside several other long-term Liverpool injury casualties.

Taking to social media platform X on Friday afternoon, he shared his own update, writing: “I didn’t suffer a new injury. I’m in the treatment phase, and the plan is to be in full playing condition by the end of April!”

Wataru Endo, Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni have all gone under the knife this campaign with none of the trio anticipated to return before the season’s conclusion.

Guardiola has considerably fewer fitness worries ahead of the FA Cup encounter between Liverpool and City. Josko Gvardiol remains their only confirmed long-term injury casualty with fellow centre-backs John Stones and Ruben Dias also nursing concerns.

The latter sat out the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal due to a hamstring injury but having enjoyed several weeks’ rest, he could be included in Saturday’s matchday squad.

Greater uncertainty surrounds Stones following his withdrawal from the England squad earlier this week. Thomas Tuchel delivered a fitness update after his return to Man City.

He explained: “John was gutted he had this minor incident, not a big injury. Given the history, we had to be careful; it made no sense to push him through and try stuff that could make it worse.”

Before the start, Yorkshire confirmed that Joe Root will play three Championship matches and fellow England batter Harry Brook two games as their preparations for the Test summer.

Glamorgan gave debuts to ex-Somerset batter Sean Dickson and New South Wales paceman Ryan Hadley, while Yorkshire’s new faces are Western Australia batter Sam Whiteman, born in Doncaster, and Dutch all-rounder Van Beek. Australian paceman Jhye Richardson was not pressed into early service.

Intermittent rain, combined with a chilly wind, meant that play did not begin in grey, windy and inhospitable weather until 16:15 BST.

Asa Tribe and Eddie Byrom, a rare bespectacled pair of batters, formed a new opening partnership for Glamorgan and Byrom hit his first ball back in the team to the square-leg boundary.

But Ben Coad beat him several times before forcing him to edge to slip where Finlay Bean clung on well.

In the next over, England contender Tribe feathered White through to Bairstow for 11, and the same combination accounted for Dickson without scoring as Bairstow took a good grab in front of slip.

The chaos continued as new captain Kiran Carlson flicked White to leg slip where Dom Bess clung on to take a catch above his head.

Despite some tentative shots early on, Ingram and England Lions all-rounder Kellaway settled in to stop the slide against the change seamers, with Ingram slapping Van Beek over point for the first Glamorgan six of the season.

The half-century partnership marked the first stage in Glamorgan’s recovery before Bairstow’s early exit for treatment, with Bean taking the keeper’s gloves.

Glamorgan survived a second blast from White and a token over of spin from Bess to reach the close with some batting resources intact, although Yorkshire will be more content with their work.

Enzo Fernandez’s agent has branded Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior’s decision to drop the midfielder as “completely unfair”.

Fernandez will not play in either of Chelsea’s next two matches after the club sanctioned him for comments made during the international break that cast doubt on his Stamford Bridge future.

The 25-year-old has been linked with Real Madrid and fuelled speculation by telling a podcast he would like to live in the Spanish capital.

Rosenior confirmed he would be axed from the team for Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final against Port Vale and next weekend’s Premier League meeting with Manchester City.

“I spoke with Enzo about an hour ago,” said Rosenior. “As a football club, with me as part of the decision, he won’t be available for tomorrow’s game or Manchester City next Sunday.

“It’s disappointing for Enzo to speak that way. I have got no bad words to say about him, but a line was crossed in terms of our culture and what we want to build.”

However, the issue is not gong to go away quietly after Fernandez’s agent Javier Pastore hit out at the sanction, saying the Argentina international does not understand the decision.

“The punishment is completely unfair,” he told The Athletic. “Banning the player for two matches, which moreover are also absolutely crucial for Chelsea because qualification for the Champions League is at stake and he is one of the team’s most important players.

“Alongside others, of course, but he has proven himself this year to be a leader and a key player, the backbone of this Chelsea side. I think it’s far too harsh given Chelsea’s current situation, and there’s no real reason or justification for why he has been banned.

“Enzo didn’t understand the situation. When the coach told him, he accepted it because he’s a highly professional guy who’s always fully committed wherever he is and respects decisions, but we don’t understand the punishment because he doesn’t mention any club or say he wants to leave Chelsea, far from it. He only mentions Madrid, the city.”

Rosenior revealed no disciplinary action would be taken against Marc Cucurella after he said in an interview with The Athletic that the dismissal of former boss Enzo Maresca in January had destabilised the team.

The Spain defender also appeared to question the club’s recruitment policy, saying: “I understand this is part of the club’s policy and that they want to take this direction – signing young players and looking to the future.

“But, for all of us who want to win big things, moments like this (the 8-2 aggregate defeat to PSG) make you feel discouraged.”

Asked about action that might be taken against Cucurella, Rosenior said: “I had a fantastic conversation with Marc yesterday, half-an-hour in my office.

“My disappointment in Marc’s interview was where it went to. I think he should’ve spoken to us first about how he was feeling.

“I want players to know they can speak openly and honestly for the benefit of the football club. As a football club, we know we need to improve.”

Scotland will meet Canada in Friday’s World Men’s Curling Championship semi-final, with the match live on the BBC Sport website & iPlayer (22:00 BST).

Matt Dunstone’s Canada made a three at the 10th end to defeat Italy 9-7 in their play-off. The United States registered the vital extra-end point to beat Switzerland 9-8 to set up a semi-final meeting with Sweden.

The winners will meet in Saturday’s final (21:00) after the third and fourth place play-off (16:00).

Scotland, led by Ross Whyte, reeled off 10 successive wins to seal their semi-final place in Utah. The Swedes, Scots and Canadians all finished the round-robin stage with a record of 10 wins and two defeats.

Sweden beat the Scots in their opening game, Scotland beat the Canadians and Canada beat the Swedes, ruling out head-to-head records, with the top two spots settled on the “draw-shot challenge”, the most accurate first shot that decides which rink has “hammer” at the start of each match.

In their tournament debut, skip Whyte, along with Robin Brydone, Euan Kyle and Craig Waddell, are looking to retain the title for Scotland after last year’s win by Bruce Mouat’s world number ones. Mouat’s rink elected not to compete following their silver medal at the Olympics in Cortina.

Brad Jacobs’ Olympic champions from Canada, currently ranked two in the world, are also missing this world championship, leaving Dunstone and Whyte’s rinks as the two highest ranked sides in the competition.

Punjab Kings Squad: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh (w), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar, Praveen Dubey, Vishnu Vinod, Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Azmatullah Omarzai, Ben Dwarshuis, Lockie Ferguson, Mitchell Owen, Harnoor Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyla Avinash, Vishal Nishad.

Chennai Super Kings Squad: Sanju Samson (w), Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Ayush Mhatre, Matthew Short, Kartik Sharma, Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmad, Matt Henry, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed, Sarfaraz Khan, Prashant Veer, Rahul Chahar, Gurjapneet Singh, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Akeal Hosein, MS Dhoni, Shreyas Gopal, Spencer Johnson, Mukesh Choudhary, Aman Khan, Dewald Brevis, Zakary Foulkes, Urvil Patel.

Gennaro Gattuso quit as Italy coach on Friday as the Azzurri failing to reach a third straight World Cup continued to send shockwaves through Italian football.

A World Cup winner in 2006, Gattuso leaves after less than a year in charge of Italy, a team which has fallen far behind historic rivals like France and Spain in the last two decades.

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Defeat on penalties to Bosnia and Hercegovina in Tuesday’s qualification play-off final ended up costing Gattuso his job, as the man who hired him also stepped down as president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).

Gabriele Gravina had asked Gattuso to stay on immediately after elimination in Zenica but his departure, and that of national team general manager Gianluigi Buffon, paved the way for the 48-year-old to resign.

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Gattuso took charge of Italy in June last year following the sacking of Luciano Spalletti, himself a victim of a dismal title defence at Euro 2024 and a 3-0 hammering at the hands of Erling Haaland’s Norway in their first World Cup qualifier.

His record is impressive on paper, with six wins, one defeat and one draw in eight matches with 22 goals scored and 10 conceded.

But that draw was the 1-1 with Bosnia which preceded a penalty shoot-out in which Italy missed twice, while the loss was another humiliating one to Norway, this time 4-1 at the San Siro.

Gattuso was considered by many a strange choice to replace Spalletti due to his spotty club coaching record, and he was heavily criticised after Tuesday’s elimination.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)