• Midfielder sustained serious knee injury in September
• ‘Maybe in the Premier League, it’s going to happen’

Rodri could be back in action before the end of the Premier League season according to the Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola.

The Ballon d’Or-winning midfielder, who was initially ruled out for the remainder of the campaign after sustaining anterior cruciate ligament damage in September, returned to individual training this week. While Rodri has spoken optimistically of playing again this term, Guardiola has been far more cautious, suggesting it was not worth the risk even if possible.

• Manager restates ambition to win Premier League
• ‘I’m not naive, that’s why I’m here’

Ruben Amorim hit back at Wayne Rooney after Manchester United crashed out of the FA Cup, by ­claiming that being the club’s head coach aged 40 showed he was not naive.

Rooney, who is United’s record goalscorer, called Amorim naive for saying after the holders’ elimination from the Cup on penalties by Fulham that the club’s long-term goal is to win the Premier League.

Proposal aims to provide stability as top flight and Championship expand from 12 to 16 teams up to 2030

A radical plan to scrap relegation from the Women’s Super League as part of a major expansion of the professional game is to be voted on by clubs at the end of the season.

Under proposals developed by the Women’s Professional League Ltd and revealed on Thursday, relegation from the 12‑team WSL would stop from the 2026-27 season as part of a gradual plan to expand both the top flight and the second‑tier Championship to 16 teams.

• FA Cup red card set to deny Gordon Carabao Cup final
• Brighton manager praises striker Danny Welbeck

Eddie Howe hinted that Newcastle might appeal against Anthony Gordon’s “harsh” straight red card in their home FA Cup defeat by Brighton but seemed virtually resigned to being without the England winger in the Carabao Cup final.

Gordon was sent off for raising two hands and shoving the Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke in the head in the 83rd minute of the 2-1 defeat and is set for an automatic three-game ban. It would rule out one of Newcastle’s leading players for the Wembley showpiece against Liverpool in two weeks’ time.

Saturday’s likely title decider in Six Nations renews an intense rivalry fuelled not by geography but the two teams’ brilliance

Saturday is a day that has been ringed in the calendar for months. The anticipation of France and Ireland renewing rivalries has been immense and what always shaped up as the likely decider for the championship will prove to be exactly that. Again. They have been the two most consistent, outstanding teams in the Six Nations for years now and they rarely disappoint when they lock horns.

It’s an intense rivalry but it isn’t fuelled by geographical reasons or historical antipathy. It is just a rivalry based on the brilliance of both sides, the two dominant teams battling out for the alpha status. It reminds me of Arsenal and Manchester United 20-25 years ago. Two teams separated from the rest of the pack by the quality they possess.

• Updates from the rugby league clash at Allegiant Stadium
• Australia v England Women, Panthers v Sharks to come
• Kick off time is 4pm in Las Vegas/12pm GMT/11am AEDT
• Any thoughts? Get in touch with Angus on email

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart has taken inspiration from the poker tables at his hotel and reshuffled his pack for today’s game against the Warriors. Josh Papalii will start, and Morgan Smithies revert to the bench. Smart move to unleash big Papa from the get-go. Vegas won’t know what hit it…

Ethan Strange and Jamal Fogarty will run the side from the halves. Corey Horsburgh and Joseph Tapine will bring muscle up the middle. There are a couple of fresh faces in the lime green line-up. Owen Pattie will debut from the bench and Savelio Tamale plays his second NRL game on the wing.

Warrington Wolves were handily beaten in Nevada but the magic of Matt Peet’s Warriors side lit up Sin City

Today, Las Vegas: tomorrow, the world? Only in the weeks, months and years to come will we know the lasting impact of Super League’s first foray into the United States but, while so many things felt new, one thing was eerily familiar: the brilliance of Wigan Warriors.

Matt Peet’s side have made it their habit to bring out their best on the biggest stages and in Nevada, with more eyes on them than ever, they certainly did not wilt as they beat Warrington 48-24, from 42-0 up.

The Arsenal forward, once England’s key player, is only 30 but his confidence is shot and his career on a downward curve

In Rafa Benítez’s first season in English football, he rested Steven Gerrard for an FA Cup tie at Burnley, who were in the Championship. When Liverpool lost, there was a predictable backlash and, from certain quarters, derision as Benítez explained his rotation policy and the need to manage the number of minutes each player played.

Social media being in its infancy, it wasn’t quite the culture war that it would have become today, but certain old-school football men clearly felt that players should just get on with it: hard work never hurt anyone. But at the same time a piece of ancient wisdom kept surfacing, usually from elderly coaches who had spent a lifetime in the game: as a rule of thumb, however much they play, whatever age they start, a player has 500 games in them.

McLaren the frontrunners in a tight title race, Hamilton reborn at Ferrari and Williams hoping for big things

Constructors’ champions last season, McLaren finished strongly and the winter has been productive. The MCL39 appears to have a genuine edge on a competitive field. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were circumspect about their car and it did demonstrate a spot of instability in the rear but their confidence on track has been palpable. They look to have taken the stable platform of last season and improved it with the long-run race simulations presenting a fearsome pace, even given all the usual caveats of fuel loads, temperatures and card-holding in testing. When off the leash for a burst of potentially qualifying pace it was impressive on the brief occasions McLaren opted to show their hand, Norris aborting one flying lap that would have set tongues wagging. That early show of pace has not gone unnoticed by the other teams, with Lewis Hamilton among others acknowledging that McLaren are set to be sharp from the off – the start Norris has long craved for a tilt at the title.

• Head coach ponders different Test, ODI and T20 captains
• McCullum may look to domestic game for new leader

Brendon McCullum is open to the concept of three England men’s captains – and possibly even appointing one from outside the current setup – as he attempts to revive the white-ball teams and ensure a winter of misery does not bleed into the Test side.

Signing off from the Champions Trophy with a seven-wicket shellacking at the hands of South Africa – a seventh successive one-day-international defeat – McCullum admitted England were poor in “all facets of the game” and lessons needed to be learned. His review will also mean identifying a successor to Jos Buttler as white-ball captain.