Football

Football

Five players from England's Under-21 squad for Tuesday's friendly with Norway in Stavanger: the Manchester United pair, David Beckham (back and calf) and Nicky Butt (calf), Liverpool's Robbie Fowler (thigh strain) and Chris Bart-Williams, of Sheffield Wednesday (ankle injury). Trevor Sinclair, of Queen's Park Rangers, is also ruled out for domestic reasons. Julian Joachim (Leicester), Chris Holland (Newcastle), Andy Booth (Huddersfield), Paul Scholes (Manchester United) and Lee Bowyer (Charlton) have been called up.

Stephen Froggatt, the Wolves winger, could be out of action until the end of the year after being diagnosed as suffering from blood clots. The former England Under-21 international was admitted to hospital for tests after losing a stone in weight and having breathing problems.

Two Lokomotiv Sofia players, Simeon Chilibonov and Adalbert Zafirov, have been given two-year bans by Uefa for attacking a referee during their European Cup-Winners' Cup tie against Halmstads, of Sweden, last week.

Matthias Sammer, of Borussia Dormund, was yesterday named German er of the Year. The 28-year-old international sweeper gained 424 of the 1,069 votes, closely followed by Jurgen Klinsmann, of Bayern Munich, who polled 393.