There was good and bad news for Liverpool yesterday surrounding the injury status of their star striker Fernando Torres.
A scan carried out by the Spanish Football Federation (FSF) has diagnosed the problem that forced the striker to pull up in Sunday's World Cup final as a grade one tear of the left thigh.
That means Torres will miss Liverpool's entire pre-season, including a Europa League qualifier to be played at the end of this month.
On the positive side, the injury is not as severe as first thought and he should be fit for the start of the Premier League season.
It is also likely to put an end to speculation of a move away from Anfield for the Spanish forward with Chelsea and Manchester City being linked.
Liverpool's medical staff are now meeting the player, who is in his homeland at the start of his summer break, to assess the injury themselves and determine his likely lay-off.
Torres, 26, was hampered by injuries last season, having a spell out with a groin problem and then having two knee operations.
He was still Liverpool's top goalscorer with 22 but lacked match sharpness throughout the World Cup and endured a disappointing tournament on a personal level.
Nevertheless, Roy Hodgson, Liverpool's new manager, admitted that pictures of Torres celebrating the World Cup triumph wearing a Liverpool scarf have lifted the club.
The former Atletico Madrid man was one of four Liverpool players in World Cup squads along with Jose Reina, his Spanish teammate and the Holland pair Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel.
"As Liverpool manager, I take great pride in the fact that two of our players can call themselves World Cup winners this summer," Hodgson told the club's website. "I think it's safe to say the pictures of Fernando in the dressing room with the World Cup certainly went down well with our fans but the club can be proud of all the players who went away to the World Cup."
Chelsea have been given a pre-season fitness boost after Ray Wilkins, their assistant coach, confirmed that midfielders Michael Essien and John Obi Mikel should be ready for the start of the new Premier League campaign. But while Wilkins said the fitness of their World Cup stars would require careful handling to prevent them "hitting the wall" by the end of the year.
Essien and Mikel missed out on the World Cup with Ghana and Nigeria respectively because of knee injuries. But the extra fitness work carried out during the summer break has put them both in contention for a return to action in time for the August 14 kick-off.
"They have been working double sessions for the last week and we will get them really firing before the season starts," said Wilkins.
Wilkins is also ready to manage a fitness plan for the nine Chelsea players, including Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, who did take part in the tournament.
"It is very important we manage them in the correct manner and we get them to a level where they won't be as fit as we want them to be, but as they creep into the new year their fitness will come back."
* PA
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Profile box
Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Company%20profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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