Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admitted he would be happy for Mohamed Salah and Wataru Endo’s international absences to be kept to a minimum as his side begin their fight on three fronts in January.

Salah is away with Egypt in the African Nations Cup, while Japan captain Endo is at the Asian Cup and both players are expected to go deep into the respective competitions.

That could mean a return in the second week of February but Klopp said he sent them on their way this week without wishing them too much success.

“I said if I wish you good luck it would be a lie,” he said ahead of the FA Cup tie at Arsenal.

“From a personal point of view, I would be happy if they go out in the group stage but that’s probably not possible. They can go on and win it.

“So it was ‘good luck and come back healthy’. We have to deal with it and we will deal with it. I am pretty positive that we will find a way.”

It is impossible to have a like-for-like replacement for Salah as he is one of a kind but Klopp does not really have a suitable player in the right-winger mould to take his place.

Midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai was touted as a potential option but he has been ruled out for at least two matches with a hamstring injury sustained in the New Year’s Day win over Newcastle.

“I can confirm it’s not a potential injury – it is an injury. Muscle, hamstring. But now we have to see,” added Klopp.

“Dom is very positive, doesn’t have a lot of pain but we have to wait a little bit. So, no chance obviously for Sunday, not for Wednesday (the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at home to Fulham).

“And then we will see. After that, hopefully he might be back but we don’t know.”

Nevertheless Klopp was confident Liverpool could fill the hole left by Salah, even if he could not hope to replicate the Egypt international’s goal involvement.

“I think we played against West Ham (in last month’s Carabao Cup quarter-final) without Mo on that side and Harvey Elliott played there,” he said.

“We have different offensive options who can all play that wing in a different way.

“Nobody else can play like Mo, it is not possible – we just have to use the boys with their skills.

“Do we want to play without Mo? No. In the past we didn’t have to do it often but we always found a way.

“But we play Arsenal and you can lose to Arsenal with Mo Salah so it’s possible to lose to them without him.”

Sandy Thomson has a bet365 Morebattle Hurdle double top of his wish list for Benson having seen the nine-year-old return to the winner’s enclosure at Musselburgh on New Year’s Day.

Benson had kicked off 2023 with an 11-length victory over Stuart Crawford’s Holmes St Georges at the Edinburgh track and returned to the same race 12 months later for a repeat in the Hogmaneigh Handicap Hurdle, this time beating the Irish raider by just one length off an 8lb higher mark.

From Musselburgh, Thomson’s stable star went straight to Kelso for the Morebattle in 2023, where he registered a famous local victory for Borders-based Thomson when downing Lorna Fowler’s Colonel Mustard.

Benson could follow the same route once again, although his handler is considering a return to Musselburgh for their Scottish Cheltenham Trials weekend, such is his stellar record at the track.

“It was a great performance and I was very happy with him before the race, he just seemed to have come to himself,” said Thomson.

“That’s what Benson does. He has been called a lot of names in the past but he stuck his neck out and was almost going away again at the line.

“We’ll obviously go for the Morebattle, but whether he goes to Cheltenham Trials Day at Musselburgh in a month or so, I don’t know. Obviously they are spaced quite nicely apart.

“The Morebattle is top of the list, but there is some quite nice prize-money at Musselburgh. If he went and won at Musselburgh he would go up (in the ratings) again, but we will see what the handicapper does and take it from there.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo hailed Victor Wembanyama after edging his first battle with the rookie on Thursday, declaring: "I've never seen anything like him".

Antetokounmpo finished with 44 points as the Milwaukee Bucks clinched a 125-121 win at the end of a back-and-forth affair against the San Antonio Spurs, snapping a two-game losing streak.

In Antetokounmpo's first NBA meeting with Wembanyama, the number one draft pick gave the Spurs a late chance to get back into the game by swatting the ball away from the Bucks star and teeing up Tre Jones for a missed three-pointer.

The rookie ended a game featuring several highlight plays with 27 points and nine rebounds, leaving Antetokounmpo impressed. 

"He's special," Antetokounmpo said of Wembanyama. "He's going to be an extremely good player. He plays the right way. He plays to win. I've never seen anything like him.

"The sky is the limit as long as you work hard, keep having a positive attitude. Everything he dreams of is going to happen for him."

Wembanyama, meanwhile, said he had learned a lot from facing Antetokounmpo, a player he has long admired.

"It's always extra motivation and I know I'm a competitor," Wembanyama said. "I want to go at everyone and be the bad guy on the court. So it was a great matchup.

"I'm trying to gain knowledge from as many great players as there are. Giannis is one of the players I've watched the most. 

"The way he uses his body, he makes 100 per cent of what he can do with his body. That's something I look up to. He's a player I know pretty well."

Thursday's defeat saw San Antonio slip to 5-29 for the season, but after a game in which neither team led by more than five points in the fourth quarter, Wembanyama chose to remain upbeat.

"It's promising," Wembanyama said. "That's the first thing coach [Gregg Popovich] told us coming back in the locker room. 

"We had some moments in the game where everything seemed to work. I could feel the crowd believing in us and getting going. Some of this was satisfying tonight."

Nikola Jokic always knew he was going to make the dramatic buzzer-beating three-pointer which guided the Denver Nuggets to a stunning win over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday.

The Warriors were on the verge of beating the Nuggets for the first time in nearly two years at Chase Center, only for the defending NBA champions to finish with a 25-4 run for a 130-127 win.

The clinching shot came from Jokic with just 3.6 seconds remaining, the two-time MVP hitting an improbable three-pointer from just inside half-court, which sailed over the outstretched arms of Warriors centre Kevon Looney and in.

Jokic had tied the game on a short jumper just 23 seconds earlier, and he finished with 34 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.

Speaking about his winner after the game, Jokic said: "That was the last option with that play. I just took a shot. I think those shots are the easiest shots to take. You don't have any other options. 

"So actually, when I felt it, I thought, 'oh, I'm going to bank this.' You can see the flight of the ball, and I just knew I was going to bank it."

Denver's win was their eighth in nine games, lifting them to 25-11 and inflicting the Warriors' third loss in the space of four games.

Jokic's game-winning shot came after Jamal Murray made a steal from Stephen Curry with just four seconds on the clock, leading Denver coach Michael Malone to hail his team for their ability to compete physically. 

"They came out in the third quarter very aggressive, and we didn't match that. They had us on our heels," Malone said.

"I said, 'okay, enough is enough. Our backs are against the ball. We have to go now,' and then we became the aggressor. 

"We became the team getting stops, pushing, attacking, we became more physical.

"The most aggressive team is going to win. I felt like when the game was on the line, we were the more aggressive team."

Regarding Jokic's buzzer beater, Malone said the credit belonged entirely to the 2021 and 2022 MVP, adding: "I wish I could tell you [that's how I drew it up]. But that's just a great player making a great play.

"Nikola lives for those moments. It's great and joyful to watch a player of his talent go out there and make the plays that he makes."

Sandown’s meeting on Saturday, set to feature the £100,000 Unibet Veterans’ Handicap Chase, has been abandoned due to a waterlogged track.

Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper and his team called an 8am precautionary inspection on Friday as though the track was raceable at the time, heavy rain was forecast for Thursday evening.

The predicted worst case scenario was up to 20mm of rain, but even more fell at the Esher venue with 34mm recorded and it has left the course saturated with no hope of improvement in time for racing.

“We’ve had 34 millimetres of rain, which started at about 2pm yesterday afternoon and finally eased off at about 4am this morning,” said Cooper.

“I would say there are multiple areas on both courses (chase and hurdle tracks) of waterlogged, false ground and areas of standing water and there are no options in terms of realignment.

“I think there is an element of judgement that it isn’t going to be materially better in 24 hours and we don’t think it will be sufficiently better in 24 hours.

“It’s basically saturated ground that is going to sit like that for a number of days now.

“It was just the wrong amount of rain at the wrong time for us, on top of what has already been a fairly wet spell, certainly since Christmas anyway.”

Oscar Pistorius has been released from prison on parole more than a decade after he killed his girlfriend.

An announcement from South Africa’s Department of Corrections on Friday morning indicated corrections officials had released the double-amputee Olympic and paralympic athlete from the Atteridgeville correctional centre in the capital Pretoria in the early hours.

Pistorius has served nearly nine years of his 13 years and five months murder sentence for killing Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013. The 37-year-old was approved for parole in November.

Serious offenders in South Africa are eligible for parole after serving at least half their sentence.

Pistorius is expected to initially live at his uncle’s mansion in the upscale Pretoria suburb of Waterkloof, where he lived during his murder trial and where he was held on house arrest for a period in 2015-2016.

Steenkamp’s mother, June Steenkamp, said in a statement she had accepted Pistorius’ parole as part of South African law.

She said: “Has there been justice for Reeva? Has Oscar served enough time? There can never be justice if your loved one is never coming back, and no amount of time served will bring Reeva back.

“We who remain behind are the ones serving a life sentence.

“With the release of Oscar Pistorius on parole, my only desire is that I will be allowed to live my last years in peace with my focus remaining on the Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp Foundation, to continue Reeva’s legacy.”

Pistorius will live under strict conditions until the remainder of his sentence expires in December 2029, the Department of Corrections said.

It emphasised that the multiple Paralympic champion’s release — like every other offender on parole — does not mean that he has served his time.

Some of Pistorius’ parole conditions include restrictions on when he is allowed to leave his home, a ban on consuming alcohol and orders that he must attend programmes on anger management and on violence against women. He will have to perform community service.

Pistorius will also have to regularly meet with parole officials at his home and at correctional services offices, and will be subjected to unannounced visits by authorities.

He is not allowed to leave the Waterkloof district without permission and is banned from speaking to the media until the end of his sentence.

He could be sent back to jail if he is in breach of any of his parole conditions.

South Africa does not use tags or bracelets on paroled offenders so Pistorius will not wear any monitoring device, Department of Corrections officials said.

He will be constantly monitored by a department official and will have to inform the official of any major changes in his life, such as if he wants to get a job or move to another house.

Pistorius has maintained that he shot Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model and law graduate, by mistake.

He testified that he believed Steenkamp was a dangerous intruder hiding in his bathroom and shot through the door with his licensed 9mm pistol in self-defence.

Prosecutors said he killed his girlfriend intentionally during a late-night argument.

Pistorius was first convicted of culpable homicide — a charge comparable to manslaughter — and sentenced to five years in prison for killing Steenkamp.

After appeals by prosecutors, he was ultimately found guilty of murder and had his sentence increased, although that judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeal still did not definitively rule that he knew it was Steenkamp behind the toilet door.

Pistorius, known as the ‘Blade Runner’ due to his carbon fibre prosthetic running blades, was a figurehead of Paralympic sport, having won six gold medals across three Games.

He became the first amputee runner to compete in an Olympics at London 2012, when he made the semi-final of the 400 metres.

Sidney Crosby scored a tie-breaking goal on the power play to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 6-5 win over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.

Crosby had a pair of assists in the first period before his goal at 11:19 in the third period snapped a 5-all tie.

It was the second straight multi-point game for the 36-year-old Crosby, who is tied for seventh in the league with 22 goals and earlier in the day was named an NHL All-Star for the 10th time.

Drew O’Connor, Ryan Graves, Jake Guentzel, Lars Eller and Jeff Carter also scored for the Penguins (19-14-4), who have now earned at least one point in seven of their last eight games, going 6-1-1 since December 18.

The Atlantic Division-leading Bruins (23-8-6) rallied from three goals down to tie the score on Brad Marchand's second goal of the game early in the third period, but ended up losing for the first time in five games.

David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie each finished with a goal and two assists, while Jeremy Swayman finished with 29 saves for Boston.

The Golden State Warriors were on the verge of beating the Denver Nuggets for the first time in nearly two years.

Nikola Jokic had other ideas.

Jokic hit a long 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Nuggets to a 130-127 win over the Warriors on Thursday to cap an 18-point, fourth-quarter comeback.

Jokic's improbable 3 came from just inside of half-court and over the outstretched arms of Warriors centre Kevon Looney.

Jokic, who had just tied the game with 26 second left on a short jumper, finished with 34 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.

Aaron Gordon sparked Denver's furious rally, scoring 15 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, as the defending champions won for the eighth time in nine games.

The Nuggets (25-11) also extended their winning streak over the Warriors to six games dating to a loss in the 2022 play-offs.

Stephen Curry led Golden State with 30 points but also committed a costly turnover late, with Jamal Murray stealing the ball from him with four seconds remaining to set up Jokic's winner.

The Warriors (16-18) lost for the third time in four games following a five-game winning streak.

Antetokounmpo powers Bucks past Wembanyama, Spurs

Victor Wembanyama sent the San Antonio Spurs fans into a frenzy with a huge 3-pointer.

Giannis Antetokounmpo promptly silenced the crowd with a 3-point play of his own.

Antetokounmpo scored 44 points and the Milwaukee Bucks pulled out a 125-121 win at San Antonio to snap a two-game losing streak.

The first NBA meeting between Antetokounmpo and Wembanyama was a back-and-forth affair in which neither team led by more five points in the final quarter.

Wembanyama tied the game at 121 on a 3-pointer with 1:09 remaining, but the Bucks responded on their next trip down the court, as Antetokounmpo put Milwaukee ahead on a driving dunk and added a free throw after being fouled.

Antetokounmpo also had 14 rebounds and seven assists for the Bucks (25-10), who got back in the win column after being swept in a home-and-home series with the Indiana Pacers.

Damian Lillard scored 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter and chipped in 10 assists.

Wembanyama blocked Lillard's layup attempt right before his 3-pointer, and later blocked an attempted dunk by Antetokounmpo with less than 30 seconds remaining. But on the Spurs next possession, Tre Jones missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer.

Wembanyama finished with 27 points, nine rebounds and five blocked shots, while Devin Vassell led San Antonio with 34 points.

The Spurs (5-29) lost their fourth in a row and for the ninth time in the last 10 games.

Serena Williams withdrew from the Australian Open on January 5, 2018 and announced she would not defend the title she won while pregnant.

The American had kept secret the fact she was expecting her first child as she swept to a 23rd grand slam title in 2017, defeating sister Venus 6-4 6-4 in the final.

Williams gave birth to daughter Alexis Olympia in September of the same year and ultimately decided to delay her return to the big stage.

Williams had played an exhibition match on December 30 in Abu Dhabi against Jelena Ostapenko, testing out her fitness in a 6-2 3-6 10-5 defeat, and that prompted her decision to sit out the new year’s first grand slam.

She said: “After competing in Abu Dhabi I realised that, although I am super close, I’m not where I personally want to be.

“My coach and team always said only go to tournaments when you are prepared to go all the way.

“I can compete, but I don’t want to just compete, I want to do far better than that and, to do so, I will need a little more time.”

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said: “The true champion Serena is has been demonstrated in the Herculean efforts she has made over the past few months in her desire to play the Australian Open.

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“Serena transcends the sport in the way she approaches all aspects of her life and consistently gives her all in everything she does.

“It was never going to be good enough for her to just compete, she wants to give herself the best chance to win.

“I’ve been in constant contact with Serena and her team and know this is why she has pushed it and pushed it until the eleventh hour to make her final decision.

“We all wish her the very best and I look forward to seeing her back on court this year, and can’t wait to welcome her back to the Australian Open in 2019.”

Williams went on to reach four more grand slam finals but did not win another title before retiring in 2022.

Sahith Theegala birdied seven of his final nine holes to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the PGA Tour season in Hawaii.

The American’s nine-under-par 64 in The Sentry event leads a group of five players, including major champions Collin Morikawa and Jason Day, plus FedEx champion Viktor Hovland.

Colombia’s Camillo Villegas and South Korean Sungjae Im are also on eight under, with world number one Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth among those a shot further adrift.

On a day of low scoring, Theegala reached the turn at three-under-par before six consecutive birdies catapulted him into the last – another at the last, giving him the top spot on his own after a bogey at the 16th.

Morikawa made six birdies and an eagle in his 65, while Hovland birdied seven of his last 10 holes.

Matt Wallace was the top English performer in the 59-strong field – made up of last year’s PGA Tour winners and top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings – with a 68, one better than Tyrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick.

Tommy Fleetwood opened with a 70, while Justin Rose came home in 31 after going out in 40 to be two under.

David Warner has said he is “relieved” to be reunited with his baggy green Australian cricket cap midway through his final Test match.

The opener issued a public plea for the cap’s return on Tuesday after it went missing in transit from Melbourne ahead of Australia’s third Test against Pakistan at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The search for Warner’s “baggy green” has made headline news in Australia, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joining the calls for its return.

The 37-year-old revealed it had been found in an Instagram post on Friday.

He said: “I’m pleased and relieved that I have got my baggy back in my hands.

“Any cricketer knows how special their cap is and I’ll cherish this for the rest of my life.

“Very grateful to all those involved in locating it: the Qantas team, the freight company, the hotel and our own team management.

“It’s a load off my shoulders going into the last couple of days; I really appreciate it, so thank you all.”

Cricket Australia said it was uncertain about the circumstances in which Warner’s cap, along with a back-up, were returned.

In his initial appeal, Warner described the cap as “sentimental to me” and that the backpack which it was in had been taken from his luggage.

Warner was out for 34 in the first innings of the Sydney Test, his 112th and final red ball appearance for his country.

At a press conference on Monday, Warner announced he was also retiring from one-day cricket, but would still be available for the T20 format.

Everton boss Sean Dyche called for a “tidying up” of VAR following the controversial decision which saw Dominic Calvert-Lewin shown a straight red card late on in the goalless FA Cup third-round tie at Crystal Palace.

Nathaniel Clyne went down wincing following a sliding tackle by Calvert-Lewin, who appeared to catch the Palace defender’s shin with his studs.

Referee Chris Kavanagh went to review the incident on the pitchside monitor and decided the contact was enough to dismiss the Toffees striker, who was sent off for the first time in his career.

Dyche said: “It seems a bit confused at the moment. I said recently, we had another one, where I said I don’t know who is refereeing which. I am a fan, (but) I definitely think we’re all aware it needs tidying up.

“I thought it was getting tidied up, and then it seems to have stepped back a bit. I remain a fan at this stage,  but it is beginning to test my patience even,  because I look at the obvious offsides which I think is fair, that should be there, some of the others I’m going well, what’s got a chance now of being let play and what’s got a chance of being called, but we don’t actually know.”

Earlier, Dyche had lamented the decision to turn to VAR in the first place, suggesting the calls throughout the contest had perhaps been inconsistent after an Everton penalty shout went unanswered.

He told ITV: “If you want to slow-mo everything, then you have got to slow-mo everything – you can’t just have it one for one and one for the other.

“At the end of it is minor contact. In live time, he doesn’t give everything, then you slow it down – and everything looks worse on slow-mo, we all know that.”

Dyche revealed he had not ruled out appealing the decision, saying: “I’ll double-check the process.

“Yet again it’s one of them risk-and-reward things. Is it worth it, is it not worth it. I don’t think anyone knows what’s going to happen with these decisions now.

“We’ll see, we’ll analyse it, we’ll get an outside view and then we will decide.”

Palace boss Roy Hodgson could understand his counterpart’s frustration, but stopped short of criticising the decision to dismiss Calvert-Lewin.

He said: “I mean Sean comes from a type of football, was brought up in a type of football where those sort of challenges were pretty commonplace and they weren’t punished if people got the ball.

“We now live in a slightly different world I think, and that is if you go into challenges with a straight leg and you have a bit of intent behind it, there’s a risk.

“There was definitely no malicious intent from Calvert-Lewin, there’s no question of that, not from seeing it back, it’s just a situation of an interpretation these days of a challenge, and the interpretation unfortunately can be that if you’re straight-legged and your foot is off the ground as you go into a challenge it can be deemed a red card.

“So have I got sympathy for him? Yes I have.”