Manchester City could be without midfielder Rodri for Sunday’s FA Cup tie against Huddersfield following the death of his grandmother.

The Spaniard has been granted compassionate leave and is currently back in Madrid.

Manager Pep Guardiola says the player has not definitely been ruled out but he seems unlikely to feature as the holders begin their defence of the trophy in the third-round tie at the Etihad Stadium.

Guardiola said at a press conference: “Rodri, unfortunately, his grandmother passed away yesterday and he is in Madrid. Today and tomorrow he will not be here.

“Hopefully he will come back for the game but, if he needs to stay, family issues are the most important thing.”

Guardiola has also revealed a number of his players have suffered from fever this week and are also doubtful.

He said: “Four players have problems. Bernardo (Silva), Scotty (Carson), Kalvin (Phillips) and Matheus Nunes are, like many people at this time, suffering.”

The match could give Kevin De Bruyne the opportunity to get some minutes as he continues his comeback from a hamstring injury but Guardiola insists the Belgian will not be rushed.

De Bruyne, who was an unused substitute for last week’s clash against Sheffield United, has not played since August.

Guardiola said: “Kevin has been (out for a) long time so we have to be patient and give the right minutes for him.

“It was a big injury. What I am concerned with the most is to try and avoid a repeat. This is what we have to be careful with.”

Star striker Erling Haaland and winger Jeremy Doku are still out after injuries but are nearing a return.

Guardiola said: “For Erling, it’s a bit better. He has done two training sessions and he feels good.

“They are improving. I don’t know for Sunday, I don’t know for Newcastle, but for the rest (of the games) they will be ready.”

Defender John Stones is City’s other notable absentee with an ankle injury.

Guardiola said Jack Grealish’s state of mind was improved after a burglary at the England international’s home over Christmas.

Thieves reportedly stole jewellery worth £1million after breaking into the midfielder’s Cheshire mansion while his fiancee and members of his family were present.

Guardiola said: “He’s much better. He’s had time to fix so it won’t happen again and the burglars have to know that there is no more jewellery at home.

“Our chief security man is handling it with Jack, his family and his (fiancee). They’re impacted, which is normal. When you’re at home and you have people come inside, it’s scary.”

The January transfer window is now open but Guardiola would give no clues as to any potential arrivals or departures.

Asked specifically about Phillips, whose future has been the subject of speculation, Guardiola said: “I don’t know, I don’t talk about the transfer window.

“I don’t know if we are going to sign 10 players, get (rid of) 10 players. Maybe one – I don’t think it will happen, but you never know.”

Ben Pauling is confident Handstands will make the long journey to the north east worthwhile when he puts his unbeaten record on the line at Newcastle on Saturday.

A winner on his Irish point-to-point debut in October, the five-year-old subsequently went under the hammer at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale the following month and was knocked down for £135,000.

It did not take him long to make a successful debut under rules for for his new connections and it was impossible to be anything but impressed by the way he readily shook off his rivals at Hereford.

A penalty means he must give 7lb away in the Quinnbet Best Odds Guaranteed Novices’ Hurdle, but Pauling expects him to prove up to the task when he embarks on the near 500-mile round trip from his Gloucestershire yard as the trainer’s sole runner on the card.

He said: “He’s a lovely horse with plenty of ability and he’ll handle the ground. I think he’s quite versatile and I think he’s got a bright future.

“Hopefully it’s a good opportunity for him to get another win under his belt and a bit more experience and we could possibly look at qualifying him for the EBF Final or something like that. He might be better than that, I’m not sure, but I think he’s a nice horse with a bright future ahead of him.

“He’s very much a chaser, but hopefully he’ll be competitive in a few nicer races over hurdles later in the season.”

Handstands will be a hot favourite for the second of four races at Newcastle that will now take place in front of the ITV cameras following the abandonment of racing at Sandown.

The first is the QuinnBet Acca Bonus Novices’ Hurdle, in which Martin Todhunter’s recent Carlisle winner Forged Well meets Lucinda Russell’s Bangor runner-up Two Auld Pals.

Local trainer Rebecca Menzies is no stranger to success at Gosforth Park and she will be hoping previous course winner Attention All can get his season up and running in the Quinnbet Acca Bonus Handicap Chase, having failed to trouble the judge in two previous outings this term.

Mark Walford has a couple of chances in the concluding quinnbet.com Handicap Hurdle, with top-weight Tommy Johnson and stablemate Amber Gold both declared.

Walford said: “We’ve been happy with Tommy Johnson’s first few runs. He was second at Carlisle and then we ran him back too soon when he was pulled up at Hexham.

“He’s been progressing nicely and I was quite happy with his run at Catterick last time (finished fifth). I don’t think Catterick would quite be his track, but Newcastle should suit him well and he’s in good form, so we’re expecting a decent run.

“It’s Amber Gold’s first run of the season and she hasn’t run for a long time. She’s been going well at home, but we’d expect her to probably come on a bit for the run.”

Napoli have completed the signing of defender Pasquale Mazzocchi from Salernitana.

The 28-year-old wing-back was born in Naples and moves to Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on a three-and-a-half-year contract after making 18 appearances for Salernitana this season.

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis was first to announce Mazzocchi’s capture with a post on X that read: “Welcome Pasquale.”

He is expected to provide cover for club captain and right-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo after making his reported three million euro (£2.6million) switch to the reigning Serie A champions.

Mazzocchi boasts one Italy cap after making his Azzurri debut against Hungary in a 2-0 Nations League victory in September 2022.

Everton will appeal against the controversial red card given to Dominic Calvert-Lewin in Thursday’s FA Cup third-round draw with Crystal Palace.

The striker faces a three-match ban having been dismissed for a sliding challenge on Nathaniel Clyne following a VAR review during the second half of the 0-0 stalemate.

Referee Chris Kavanagh initially did not even give a free-kick but was sent to review the incident on the pitchside monitor and decided the contact was enough to dismiss Calvert-Lewin.

The decision was widely criticised and a Toffees statement read: “Everton Football Club has today notified the FA of its decision to appeal the red card issued to Dominic Calvert-Lewin in our FA Cup third round fixture at Crystal Palace on Thursday evening.”

Everton manager Sean Dyche said he remained a fan of VAR but that the system was “beginning to test my patience”.

“I look at the obvious offsides, which I think is fair, that should be there,” said Dyche. “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.”

If the decision is not overturned, Calvert-Lewin faces missing the third-round replay as well as Premier League matches against Aston Villa and Fulham.

Betfred’s sponsorship of the Derby will run until at least 2026.

This year’s big Epsom meeting will be staged as the Betfred Derby Festival for the first time, with Fred Done’s company backing a further race on each of the two days, to take their total to six.

Betfred’s original three-year deal with the Jockey Club has been extended by a further 12 months.

Amy Starkey, managing director at Jockey Club Racecourses, said: “Our relationship with Betfred spans many years and many major races, and we are delighted to be strengthening our partnership at Epsom Downs still further following a brilliant first running of the Betfred Derby in 2023.

“Betfred’s support of British racing over many years is clear for all to see and we can’t wait to get cracking with Fred and his team as we look to promote the greatest Flat race in the world in 2024 and beyond.”

Done added: “Following on from a memorable two days at Epsom last year, we are delighted to further develop our support of the Betfred Derby Festival and we very much look forward to working with Amy and her team to keep the fixture at the forefront of world racing.”

Barcelona defender Joao Cancelo faces a spell on the sidelines after suffering knee ligament damage.

Cancelo was forced off after 11 minutes of Barcelona’s 2-1 LaLiga victory at Las Palmas on Thursday.

“Tests carried out on Friday show that first-team player Joao Cancelo has a strained medial collateral ligament in his left knee,” read a Barcelona statement.

“He is unavailable for selection and his recovery will dictate his return.”

Barcelona are in action again on Sunday, against Barbastro in the Copa del Rey, with their next league game at Real Betis on January 21.

Portugal international Cancelo, 29, has made 22 appearances and scored three goals for Barcelona since joining on loan from Manchester City last September.

Dual Grade One scorer Gala Marceau could make her belated return at Doncaster later this month, as connections have their sights set on the Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

The five-year-old was a star performer for trainer Willie Mullins and owner Kenny Alexander last season, finishing no worse than third in five starts and tasting big-race success at both the Dublin Racing Festival and at Auteuil in the Prix Alain du Breil.

She was also a fine second to stablemate and regular foe Lossiemouth in the Triumph Hurdle before finishing a place further back in third behind that rival at the Punchestown Festival.

Having finished off her season excelling when upped to two and a half miles in France, connections believe the Mares’ Hurdle over a similar distance is the ideal target for the Cheltenham Festival in March.

And Gala Marceau could use a well-trodden path to Prestbury Park by running in Doncaster’s Yorkshire Rose Mares’ Hurdle on January 27, a race Mullins has won with both Annie Power (2014) and Vroum Vroum Mag (2017) previously.

“We will possibly see her out towards the end of the month and there is a nice race at Doncaster that is being discussed,” said Peter Molony, racing manager to owner Alexander. “It’s a nice mares’ race, a Grade Two I think it is.

“The main aim would be the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham – that’s what we are thinking.

“The extra half a mile she will get at Cheltenham seemed to really play to her strengths at Auteuil and she was very impressive that day. We were all blown away to be honest.”

Alexander’s colours have of course been carried to Mares’ Hurdle success twice in the past by the great four-time Festival winner Honeysuckle.

Gala Marceau may struggle to match Honeysuckle’s exceptional career CV, but Molony feels she has more than done enough to advertise her quality during her first season with Mullins and has shown signs over the summer there could be plenty more to come.

He continued: “I’m not sure she will ever fill those boots, but she has done us proud so far and won us two Grade Ones.

“She’s not the biggest in the world, but she is as tough as nails and she has definitely grown with us over the summer and strengthened a bit by the time she went back to Willie’s. So we are very hopeful she can progress again.”

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe will go into Saturday’s FA Cup clash with derby rivals Sunderland adamant he does not need daily reassurances from the club’s big-spending owners.

The Magpies will run out for the third-round tie at the Stadium of Light having lost seven of their last eight games and each of the most recent four in all competitions.

It is a sequence which has led to speculation that Howe’s future as head coach under a Saudi-backed regime which has invested around £400million in new players since taking over in October 2021 could be uncertain.

Sources on Tyneside have dismissed talk of pressure on the 46-year-old in the wake of a difficult run, although defeat by the Black Cats is unthinkable if a season which has already brought Champions league and Carabao Cup disappointment is not to deteriorate further.

Asked about the speculation, Howe said: “I certainly don’t need daily reassurances. I feel comfortable in the fact that we are working as hard as we can to improve performances and improve results.

“Obviously I know it’s a results-based business – all the usual things you’d expect me to say – but I do feel the support from the club, and that’s really important in this moment.”

The Magpies and the Black Cats have enjoyed very different fortunes since the clubs last met almost eight years ago with the Amanda Stavely-led £305million takeover having sparked fresh optimism on Tyneside at a time when Sunderland were fighting their way back from back-to-back relegations and a four-year stay in League One.

However, the Wearside club had enjoyed six successive victories over their neighbours before a 1-1 draw last time out and new boss Michael Beale this week ventured the opinion that in terms of size, stature and history, there is little – other than hard cash – between them.

Howe, whose last visit to Sunderland in April 2017 saw his Bournemouth side relegate David Moyes’ men, said: “I’m not going to get into a war of words with any manager, I just don’t think it’s wise to make those comparisons or comments.

“We know who we are and what we are. I certainly know more about the size of this football club since managing it and the future is very bright no matter what happens in the short term.”

Howe, who identified Sunderland wide men Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts – the latter is an injury doubt this weekend – as significant threats, is desperate to end a grim run of results which has seen his side win only once since a 1-0 Premier League victory over Manchester United on December 2, and admits achieving that at the Stadium of Light could rekindle his side’s campaign.

He said: “It can certainly reboot us and just change the external – and even internal – view of ourselves because it can change very quickly.

“I have made reference to it many times; the Manchester United game, our best performance of the season, was not that long ago and now the view is very different on the team.

“Confidence is a very fragile thing for the players as well, so anything that helps them re-find their best rhythm as quickly as possible is what we’re seeking.”

Several horses at champion trainer Paul Nicholls’ Ditcheat base in Somerset had to be moved from their stables on Thursday evening as heavy rain in the area flooded part of their yard.

Nicholls described the rain as a “once in a 15-year event”, but was able to report on Friday morning that as quick as the flood appeared it had soon receded.

Racing is scheduled for Wincanton on Saturday, Nicholls’ local track, but officials are confident racing will take place and the handler echoes their optimism given how quickly the water disappeared.

“It’s a once in a 15-year event really when you get so much rain in the area through Somerset and Wiltshire and it all ends up coming down the rivers,” Nicholls told Nick Luck’s Daily Podcast.

“We are right by the River Aller and as everything backs up and the river bursts its banks everywhere, all the drainage in the village and in our yard just backs up and our bottom yard floods.

“We have six or eight horses that when it gets like we have to move out and at 10.30pm last night we were having to move them out.

“Astonishingly once the water levels drop it’s like someone pulls a plug, it just disappears and it’s all gone today.

“The problem is higher up, they get so much rain it feeds into the river and nothing can cope. It’s just sheer volume of water.

“I must say I’ve never seen rain like it, or water on the roads, last night. I took my dad to the pub last and I basically had to rescue him, it took an hour to get home and it’s basically half a mile down the road. I’ve never seen anything like it, but it’s all good this morning.

“It doesn’t surprise me Wincanton might race as there was so much water it just ran straight off, it didn’t get chance to sink in.”

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has played down the significance of a blunder which saw a bar at the home of arch-rivals Sunderland decorated in his club’s colours ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup derby.

The Wearside club have launched an investigation into how the Black Cats Bar at the Stadium of Light, which will host corporate hospitality for travelling fans, was decked out in black and white and Magpies slogans, sparking fury from home supporters.

But as “disgusted and hurt” Sunderland chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus vowed to address the issue, Newcastle head coach Howe waved away suggestions the 6,000 visiting supporters had been handed a head-start in the run-up to the eagerly-anticipated third-round fixture.

He said: “No, I don’t feel that. Look, these things can happen, it’s up to Sunderland what they do with their stadium. It’s nothing to do with us.”

The game, the first between the sides for almost eight years, represents Howe’s first taste of the Tyne-Wear rivalry, and he is expecting his players to handle the white-hot atmosphere.

Asked if he thought the signage row could further fuel the passion of the home fans, he said: “Regardless of what you’re expecting, you still have to play the match in front of you.

“We’ve just got to blank out any distractions and play the game and use our support – which I’m sure will be incredible – to propel us to a really good performance.”

The controversy came to light on Thursday, when images of the bar were circulated on social media.

Sunderland later apologised and confirmed it would be returned to its original state.

Louis-Dreyfus wrote on Instagram: “I would like to apologise to everyone associated with Sunderland AFC for the events that have unfolded today.

“Like our supporters, I was disgusted and hurt by the pictures circulating online of the inappropriate signs that have been ripped down.

“I take full responsibility for every decision that is taken by the employees of our club and you have my word that I will personally make sure that we make the necessary changes required to improve because it is clear that there are many areas where we need to be better.”

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.”