England's Bukayo Saka leaves the field after being injured in the Nations League game against Greece at Wembley. Getty Images
England's Bukayo Saka leaves the field after being injured in the Nations League game against Greece at Wembley. Getty Images
England's Bukayo Saka leaves the field after being injured in the Nations League game against Greece at Wembley. Getty Images
England's Bukayo Saka leaves the field after being injured in the Nations League game against Greece at Wembley. Getty Images

Bukayo Saka ruled out of England’s clash with Finland but Harry Kane may return


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Bukayo Saka is out of England’s Nations League game against Finland on Sunday.

The winger limped off during the second half of Thursday’s humiliating defeat to Greece at Wembley and is not fit for the match in Helsinki.

He will now return to Arsenal for further assessment ahead of their Premier League clash with Bournemouth next weekend.

Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones is also out of the trip as he has a personal matter to deal with.

Jones was a late addition to the England squad ahead of the Greece game but was an unused substitute.

Harry Kane was one of 22 players who trained on Saturday, increasing hopes that the captain will be fit after missing Thursday’s game.

Kane could not overcome a knock picked up playing for Bayern Munich in time to feature and his absence prompted interim boss Lee Carsley to deploy an eyebrow-raising formation, which had Jude Bellingham playing a “false 9” in front of Phil Foden, Saka, Cole Palmer and Anthony Gordon.

It backfired as Greece won 2-1 to take control of League B Group 2, leaving England no room for any more slip-ups if they want to win the group and return to League A automatically.

Meanwhile, England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford says Carsley will be hurt by the humiliating loss to Greece, but does not know how the interim manager’s future will be affected.

The former Republic of Ireland international Carsley was cryptic about whether he wants the job full-time after the game, yet that might be out of his control after a bold attacking selection backfired.

The defence was left woefully exposed and the visitors, mourning the death of teammate George Baldock, took advantage.

Ollie Watkins and Harry Kane train at Tottenham Hotspur Training Centre on Saturday, October 12, ahead of England's game against Finland. Getty Images
Ollie Watkins and Harry Kane train at Tottenham Hotspur Training Centre on Saturday, October 12, ahead of England's game against Finland. Getty Images

They were worthy winners, with Vangelis Pavlidis scoring a stoppage-time decider.

Asked how the defeat might affect Carsley’s future, Pickford said: “I’m not the hierarchy. It’s never nice for a player or staff to get beat at Wembley.

“We want to win every game we play when we put this shirt on and we didn’t.

“So we’ve got to keep going, dust ourselves down. What can we do better, what can we learn from and move on and get the result on Sunday?

“You’ve always got to learn. You’re never going to be perfect, even when you’re winning games. You can learn a lot from this. It’s about recovering well and getting ready for Sunday.”

Pickford hopes skipper Kane will be available. “He’s not the record goalscorer for England and has 100 caps for nothing, he leads by example,” he said.

“I think Harry will be fit to go on Sunday. Now we’ve just got to go and win away on Sunday against Finland and then the next camp in Greece away and Ireland at home.”

England must now win their remaining three games, starting with Finland on Sunday before the return trip to Athens and a Wembley fixture against the Republic in the November fixtures.

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The bio

Job: Coder, website designer and chief executive, Trinet solutions

School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira

Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk

Dream City: San Francisco

Hometown: Dubai

City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala

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0-100kph: 5.3 seconds (Elantra); 5.5 seconds (Kona); 6.1 seconds (Veloster)

Power: 276hp

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Transmission: 6-Speed Manual/ 8-Speed Dual Clutch FWD

Price: TBC

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It’s easier to go grey from a lighter colour, so you may want to do that first. And this is the time to try a shorter style, she advises. Then a stylist can introduce highlights, start lightening up the roots, and let it fade out. Once it’s entirely grey, a purple shampoo will prevent yellowing.
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Defending champions

World Series: South Africa
Women’s World Series: Australia
Gulf Men’s League: Dubai Exiles
Gulf Men’s Social: Mediclinic Barrelhouse Warriors
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Gulf Women: Dubai Sports City Eagles
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The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.

Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.

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Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.

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The Emirates Charity Portal

You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.

The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments

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Al Noor Special Needs Centre

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Beit Al Khair Society

Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.

Dar Al Ber Society

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Dubai Cares

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Emirates Airline Foundation

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Emirates Red Crescent

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Gulf for Good

Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.

Noor Dubai Foundation

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).

Updated: October 12, 2024, 11:43 AM