Aubameyang and Partey to miss Cup of Nations games due to COVID-19 restrictions

Club football is on a two-week hiatus as players join their national teams during the international break but some countries are off limits due to strict COVID-19 quarantine rules, with FIFA giving clubs the power to refuse to release players.

* Dushanbe’s Central Republican Stadium will be the unlikely focal point for Asian football on Thursday (Mar 25) as the region’s qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup finals relaunch after almost 18 months of stasis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hosts Tajikistan face Mongolia in the Group F clash, the first World Cup preliminary held on Asian soil since the global health crisis wiped out the entire 2020 qualifying calendar.

* Jonny Gray has not recovered from a shoulder injury in time for Scotland’s final Six Nations game in Paris on Friday while Sean Maitland also misses out, Scottish Rugby said. Gray was excluded from the 29-man squad named by coach Gregor Townsend for the trip to the Stade de France.

* Former Formula 1 driver and Le Mans winner Johnny Dumfries, who was a team-mate to Brazilian Ayrton Senna at Lotus in 1986, has died at the age of 62, his family said on Monday.

* Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro will undergo more knee surgery this week and hopes to recover in time for the Tokyo Olympics, the former US Open champion said on Monday.

* Inter Milan’s foreign players have been granted permission to leave for international duty after no new cases of COVID-19 were reported among staff and players on Monday, according to Italian media reports.

* Romelu Lukaku has tested negative for the novel coronavirus after an outbreak at his club Inter Milan and has travelled to Belgium for their World Cup qualifiers, Belgian officials confirmed on Monday.

* Italy manager Roberto Mancini expects a physical Northern Ireland side to provide the toughest challenge of the three World Cup qualifying games his side are facing during a busy international break. The Azzurri, who are on a 22-match unbeaten run under Mancini, welcome Ian Baraclough’s side to Parma on Thursday for their opening 2022 World Cup qualifier.

* RB Leipzig have signed defender Mohamed Simakan from Strasbourg on a five-year contract, the Bundesliga club said on Monday. Leipzig did not disclose THE financial terms of the deal, but said the 20-year-old centre back would join on July 1.

* World Athletics is launching an innovative plan asking for everyone connected to and interested in the sport to play a part in moulding its long-term future via a massive worldwide survey. Termed the “Global Conversation” the sport’s world governing body wants to consult with federations, athletes, coaches, officials, fans, meeting directors, partners and media to plan a roadmap for how the sport will look from 2022-2030.

* Six-times world champion Marc Marquez will not race in the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix as he continues to recover from an arm injury sustained last season, his team Repsol Honda said on Monday. Marquez fractured his humerus in the 2020 season-opening Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez last July, after the COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted the original calendar, and did not race again all year.

* Soccer player Robert Lewandowski received an honour from the Polish president on Monday, giving the striker named Best FIFA Men’s Player in 2020 another award for a trophy cabinet already containing Champions League and Bundesliga winner’s medals. Lewandowski, who last season won the German league and cup double plus the Champions League with Bayern Munich, received the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta from his country’s President Andrzej Duda.

* Croatia striker Bruno Petkovic will miss their opening World Cup qualifiers after suffering a shoulder injury playing for his club Dinamo Zagreb, the Balkan nation’s coach Zlatko Dalic said on Monday.

* Borussia Moenchengladbach have agreed to hire former Spain midfielder Xabi Alonso as their manager for next season, German newspaper Bild reported on Monday.

* Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford could be fit for England’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers this month despite missing Sunday’s (Mar 21) FA Cup quarter-final defeat by Leicester City due to injury, the club’s manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has said.

* Portugal central defender Pepe will miss their opening 2022 World Cup qualifiers after picking up an injury playing for his club Porto, the country’s football association has said.

* Tokyo Olympic organisers said on Monday that Japan would not allow in volunteers from overseas except for some who are deemed essential, after it decided to bar international spectators amid public concerns over the novel coronavirus.

* Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham has been cleared to join England’s squad for their 2022 World Cup qualifiers this month, the Football Association said.

Source: Nhan Dan Online