Michael O’Neill is bracing himself for another challenging international window as Northern Ireland’s bruising Euro 2024 qualifying campaign comes to an end this month.

Any hope of reaching next summer’s tournament was virtually extinguished as long ago as June, and with only two wins – both against San Marino – and six defeats in Group H, Northern Ireland would have been forgiven for wanting to fast forward to the end of a campaign ruined by an ongoing injury crisis.

But two games remain and with a trip to Finland, the pot two team in last October’s draw, to come before top seeds Denmark visit Windsor Park on October 20, they are two of the hardest on paper.

O’Neill on Wednesday welcomed back Ciaron Brown and Jordan Jones into his squad but the 26-strong group was another one largely dictated by who is and who is not available due to injury, and the headwinds remain firmly against Northern Ireland.

Finland blew their chance to qualify with back-to-back defeats to Slovenia and Kazakhstan last month, but Denmark are level on points with Slovenia at the top of the standings, looking to finish the job off.

“They will be difficult games but all the games have been difficult,” O’Neill told the PA news agency.

“When I look at the team and I take the results out of it and look at where we are, how we are in possession and a number of other areas, there’s not a lot of difference between all the teams in the group bar Denmark who have been the most dominant.

“We have to look at the positives. We’re not that far behind these teams but we’ve come out on the wrong side of narrow scorelines. We have to learn from that.

“We have been more dominant in possession than some of my previous teams but we’ve not carried the same threat, and obviously we’ve gone behind in games so we’ve not had the opportunity to defend a lead and I think that’s when you’ve seen the best of Northern Ireland, in that situation.”

Although Brown and Jones return, Conor Bradley, Ali McCann and Shayne Lavery all remain unavailable, as do the senior players – Steven Davis, Stuart Dallas, Corry Evans and Shane Ferguson – who have missed the entire campaign.

“It’s a blow not to have young Conor back and to have Ali McCann and Shayne Lavery still out as well,” O’Neill said.

“We’re trying to pick a consistent squad and with the injuries there are still up to seven or eight players who could be involved that aren’t.

“It’s not like there’s a number of players on the periphery we could select ahead of those we have selected. The lads we’ve picked are the ones playing more regular football at their clubs and who merit their place at this moment in time.

“We’re trying to grow a team, to develop a team and we have to continue to do that. With the older players we don’t know what involvement they will have going forward, that’s a decision they have to make.

“The backbone of the squad is very, very young and we have to get as much international experience into them as possible and hopefully that experience is as positive as possible as well.”

Daniel Ballard is fit again after a calf injury, while Shea Charles retains his place in the group although the Southampton player will miss the trip to Helsinki through suspension, having been sent off in last month’s 1-0 home defeat to Slovenia.

Eighteen-year-old striker Callum Marshall is in the squad again after some excellent form for West Ham Under-21s, and will hope for another chance after being denied a debut goal away to Denmark in June when his late equaliser was disallowed.

Jack Butland says Rangers players have bought into the new attitude to fitness at Ibrox under Philippe Clement.

Immediately after taking over as Gers boss from Michael Beale, the Belgian emphasised his desire for a much fitter and more robust squad.

Clement is unbeaten in five games and, ahead of the Europa League clash with Sparta Prague at Ibrox on Thursday night, Butland spoke openly about the changes he has witnessed.

The 30-year-old goalkeeper said: “He’s bringing everybody in. Sometimes the old ideas of running stupid distances can be a punishment to people, or feel that way.

“He’s made it clear, if people are doing extra running, it’s not as a punishment, it’s to get you up to the standard of the lads who are getting those numbers in week in week out, so when the opportunity comes he will call on those people, because we will need to over the course of the season – they are not a yard off, they’re up to standard.

“When he articulated it in that way, it’s not as if you’re running because you’re not playing or fit enough, you’re doing extra work to get to the levels we need.

“The lads are on board because that works in everyone’s favour. Those guys, it means they are ready and for the rest of the team and club, every player is ready to go when called upon.”

Butland believes Clement’s new fitness methods are part of his aspiration to simplify football at Ibrox.

The former Stoke and Crystal Palace keeper said:  “He’s simplified things, he’s made his demands obvious and not clouded.

“There’s been occasions where he wants to improve certain things and aspects, whether it be fitness or whatever, there’s been things that he’s touched on and been sure to come back and give us reasons as to why and backed up his reasons as to why he’s making us do certain things or play a certain way.

“There’s no grey area, I think the lads know what’s expected and he’s included everybody.

“It’s sort of coming together and I guess we’ve seen that in a short space of time. But the way that the manager is and the way that we are with not stopping at anything, we’ve got things that we want to achieve, a lot of work to do and that’s a conscious effort every single day to keep getting better and improve.

“We’ve come a long way I think, still a way to go, but we’re getting towards the team we want to be.”

EFL chairman Rick Parry has defended football’s right to benefit from responsible betting sponsorship and accepts there are no “magic answers” to eradicating addiction issues among players.

The sport’s relationship with gambling has been in the spotlight again recently after a 10-month ban was imposed on Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali by the Italian Football Federation late last month.

The player, who is suffering from a gambling addiction according to his agent, is also being investigated over possible breaches of betting rules in England by the Football Association.

The Big Step campaign, part of the Gambling With Lives charity, said the player deserved “empathy and support” rather than a heavy sanction, adding: “Sending someone addicted to gambling into this environment is like sending an alcoholic to work in a pub. If you force young footballers to endorse addictive products then don’t be surprised if they use them.”

Parry, whose organisation signed a new deal with Sky Bet as its title sponsor in June through to 2029, told the PA news agency that betting companies had made “billions” of pounds out of sport since the introduction of the Gambling Act in 2005 and added: “It’s only fair that there is a way of channelling some of that revenue into sport.

“So enabling sport to negotiate marketing agreements to get a share of the billions that are flowing in is something I have no difficulty with whatsoever as a concept.

“We’ve commissioned research, we’ve looked extensively and we haven’t seen any evidence that sponsorship leads to an increase in gambling or gambling harm.

“The values of gambling in England have been fairly steady across the decades and there is no direct correlation between sponsorship and gambling harm.

“Nobody wants gambling harm, nobody wants players to become addicted, or indeed non-players. But it is two different issues that tend to get conflated in terms of what we are doing with players and indeed with the non players.”

The EFL’s partnership with Sky Bet was singled out for praise in the Government’s white paper on gambling reform published in April as an example of the sort of socially responsible agreement sports should strive for.

Since 2018, Sky Bet funding has supported the EPIC Risk Awareness programme which has provided education to players and staff at all 72 EFL clubs. The programme has reached 2,200 players and staff over the past two years.

Sky Bet’s parent company Flutter will also put £20million into wider research, education and treatment this year alone.

“Behaving responsibly is incredibly important,” Parry added.

“Educating players is something that we’ve been doing for at least the last five years and we’ll continue to do more of that.

“(But) that frankly is never going to stop individuals from wanting to gamble. Ten per cent of people gamble – they always will.

“It is a fact of life, prohibition doesn’t work, so what you have to do is have a framework, that you educate, you behave responsibly, you do everything you can to minimise harm, but eliminating it is incredibly difficult.

“If we didn’t have Sky Bet sponsorship we would still have players betting – they always have, they always will.

“Our responsibility is to try to make sure that we support and that we educate – it’s not just about punishment. As we’ve seen pretty graphically in Italy recently, it’s not just been about identifying punishment, it’s identifying that some of the players have genuine addiction problems. It’s how you assist in rehabilitation as well as punishment, and there are no magic answers.

“It’s a problem that will continue to exist. We have to try to tackle it and address it, without in any way pretending it’s not there.

“But that said, that absolutely shouldn’t preclude us from entering into responsible and sensible marketing arrangements when gambling operators are making a huge amount of money out of sport, and have been encouraged to do so by successive governments.”

Sky Bet will also commit £1million a year to the Building Foundations Fund which will support the community organisations linked to the 72 EFL clubs.

This week is a designated ‘EFL Week of Action’ to highlight the social benefit provided by club community organisations in the towns and cities they serve.

Former Tottenham and Northern Ireland goalkeeper Pat Jennings appeared fit and well as he unveiled a statue of himself in Newry on Wednesday, two days after being taken into hospital.

The 78-year-old was taken ill at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Monday night ahead of Spurs’ match against Chelsea, but was released later than evening and travelled back to his home city for Wednesday’s unveiling.

Jennings, accompanied by his wife and children, took part in the ceremony to reveal a new bronze likeness of him on Kildare Street in the centre of his hometown.

Former Northern Ireland players Billy Hamilton and Gerry Armstrong, ex-Tottenham captain Ledley King, and former Arsenal and Republic of Ireland midfielder Liam Brady were among those in attendance.

During the unveiling Jennings, who played more than 550 times for Spurs and earned 119 caps for Northern Ireland, said he “couldn’t believe” he was having a statue dedicated to him.

“I’d have seen people who are getting statues unveiled of them and never thought it would ever happen to me,” he said.

“Having said that, I’ve had an unbelievable career in football from leaving here as a 17-year-old to join Watford I never dreamt that I’d be back 60 years later, over 60 years, unveiling a statue…

“This is basically my home city, where I wouldn’t want it anywhere else.”

Jennings played for Newry Town before joining Watford in 1963. He signed for Tottenham in 1964 and won the FA Cup, UEFA Cup and League Cup twice at White Hart Lane before switching to rivals Arsenal, again lifting the FA Cup in 1979.

Jennings’ former Arsenal team-mate Brady said Jennings was a “very special person”.

“He’s been a great friend down through the years, he is probably the best goalkeeper in the world at one time, without any doubt,” he said.

“As you say when he left Tottenham, he came to Arsenal and I wanted to be here today to tell everybody that he is an Arsenal player as well. And it’s just unique because he’s loved by both Tottenham and Arsenal supporters and I think he’s the only one in the world that can say that.”

King said he had been able to get to know Jennings personally since his own retirement 12 years ago.

“First of all, what a gentleman and also an icon and a legend of the football club. I love hearing his stories about the great players that he’s played with and against.

“One of my favourites was when he represented his country at 41 years old at a World Cup in his last cap against Brazil, which is amazing to hear.

“It’s a pleasure to be here and what this statue will hopefully do is inspire young people that no matter where you come from in the world that you can achieve anything and go on to be the best.”

Philippe Clement declared he wants to build a “machine” at Rangers as he prepares for the Europa League clash with Sparta Prague at Ibrox on Thursday night.

The Belgian is unbeaten in five games since taking over as Gers boss from Michael Beale, with the only blip a goalless draw against the Czech side in Prague last month.

Rangers secured a Viaplay Cup final date with Aberdeen courtesy of a “positive” 3-1 victory over Hearts at Hampden Park on Sunday, and Clement is wanting more.

“It is just the start,” said the former Genk, Club Brugge and Monaco boss, who revealed winger Scott right was a “serious doubt” with a muscle injury but striker Kemar Roofe will return to the squad despite being only able to contribute “five or 10 minutes”.

“For me a good team is a team that does it for months.

“And of course there will be one moment where it will be less (a dip) but the next game there is a reaction.

“Of course I am happy with the way things are going but I am not sitting on the sofa and thinking now we can let everything loose and the machine will go.

“I want to create a machine and I think it is possible with this group to create a machine that goes every time but we are not there yet.

“We are in the building period, not just observing. I don’t know everyone really well at the moment in every circumstances.

“I want to see how players react with the first disappointment or play a really good game and the next game they don’t start.

“I seen that in the semi-final. There were players who played a really good game a few games before (against Dundee) and then didn’t play in the semi-final. How is their reaction?

“So I need an observation period for a few weeks, a few months to get the details of everybody and get the best out of everybody.

“Do I need to slap them more or be nice more? It is different for every player.”

After three Group C fixtures, Spanish side Real Betis sit top on six points with Sparta Prague and Rangers on four and Cypriot side Aris Limassol on three.

Clement said: “European nights are always something special, they have always been.

“I love it and I hope it is a really positive atmosphere in the stadium.

“I always want to win and I want a team that always wants to win, if it is against Prague or Real Madrid, it doesn’t matter to me.

“I want a team who is ambitious and wants to win the game, I am not looking for a draw but it can be that at the end of the section that a draw is also important. But we are going for three points.”

Defenders Leon Balogun and Ridvan Yilmaz were not named in Rangers’ European squad and thus drop out.

Midfielder Nicolas Raskin (ankle) and defender John Souttar (muscle problem) remain out but Clement hopes they will return after the international break.

Steve Clarke wants Scotland to use their final Euro 2024 qualifiers against Georgia and Norway to regain their momentum ahead of the finals in Germany next summer.

The Scots initially suspected they might need positive results from their last two games in Group A to qualify so organised a warm-weather training camp in Turkey at the start of next week to give themselves the best possible preparation ahead of their penultimate fixture in Tbilisi on Thursday.

However, after a blistering start to their campaign, they sealed their place at the tournament with two games to spare, so their main priority in the upcoming camp is to spark an upturn in results after successive defeats against England, Spain and France.

“We’ll be doing something similar to what we did when we went to Moldova (in 2021, when they had a warm-weather training camp in Spain), so we’ll leave early, on Sunday night after the games, and we’re going to stop off in Turkey and have a couple of days of hopefully warm weather there to break up the journey,” Clarke said at a press conference on Wednesday after naming his squad for the double-header.

“We identified these two games – Georgia away and Norway at home – as crucial games in the qualification process, but credit to the players, they’ve already qualified, so the games are not quite as crucial.

“But when you strip it back, we’ve lost the last three games, so we want to pick up a little bit of momentum going into the tournament next summer, so these two games are very important for us.

“It will be good to come here to finish the campaign with a home game against Norway and hopefully a good performance.

“It will be a chance for the crowd to thank the players and a chance for the players to thank the crowd. It will be a bit of a poor night if we don’t win the game, so let’s make sure we win the game.”

The 2-0 defeat by Spain in Seville saw Scotland relinquish top spot in Group A on goal difference. Spain finish away to Cyprus and at home to Georgia.

“I think to finish top is going to be very difficult,” said Clarke. “As I sit here now, it’s difficult for me to see Spain dropping any points from their last two games.

“We’ll just focus on ourselves and, if we can finish on the same points as Spain and they manage to top the group by an unfortunate slip from Aaron Hickey in the 2-0 defeat by Spain in Seville, we’ll take that.”

Scotland are missing four established starters for this month’s double-header, with goalkeeper Angus Gunn, captain Andrew Robertson, and fellow defenders Kieran Tierney and Aaron Hickey all injured.

Rangers defender John Souttar and Millwall forward Kevin Nisbet are the other notable absentees following their recent fitness issues.

Uncapped duo Josh Doig and Robby McCrorie, both of whom have been in previous camps, have been included, along with Celtic right-back Anthony Ralston.

“This is probably the toughest it’s been in terms of injuries in the last year or so,” said Clarke. “I remember in September last year we had to go to Ukraine in the Nations League with pretty much a shadow squad, but we dug in and got the result required.

“That’s what we’ll do this time. We can talk about the ones who are not here, but I always prefer to talk about the ones that are going to be here, so fingers crossed there are no more injuries before the squad meet up on Sunday.”

With first-choice Gunn missing with an injury he sustained for Norwich against Leeds last month, Motherwell’s Liam Kelly and Hearts’ Zander Clark, both of whom made their international bows in the friendly defeat by France last month, will vie to make their competitive debuts over the next two games.

“Obviously one of them is going to get a chance to play in the games coming up, so it’s a big camp for them,” said Clarke. “They know they have to impress.

“They’ve been in a lot of squads so they understand it and know the expectation around them. Hopefully they train well and are ready to play.”

Clarke included uncapped Verona left-back Doig after he was initially named in Scot Gemmill’s under-21 squad this week.

“Josh is doing well in Serie A, playing pretty regularly for his club,” said Clarke.

“He’s a good, athletic player who gets up and down the line. It will be nice to see how he’s improved and how he fits into the camp since we last saw him last September.”

Clarke insists he has not allowed his attention to turn towards his final 23-man squad for the Euros just yet.

“It won’t be a headache, it will be a difficult choice,” he said. “There’s obviously going to be a lot of people that want to be there.

“For me, it’s about not thinking too far ahead to picking the 23 because as this camp shows, injuries can turn up at any time.

“There’s a long way to go before the final squad is picked. Every game between now and the squad selection for the Euros next summer is a chance for somebody to impress so hopefully they take their chances.”

Rob Page says he has cleared the air with Football Association of Wales chief Noel Mooney after their public spat last month.

Mooney put Page’s future in the spotlight four days before the Euro 2024 qualifier against Croatia by saying the manager’s position would be reviewed if Wales did not qualify for Euro 2024 automatically.

Subsequent media reports suggested Mooney had wanted fellow Irishman Roy Keane, the former Sunderland and Ipswich manager and TV pundit, to replace Page following June defeats to Armenia and Turkey.

Page is just over 12 months into a four-year contract and promised to “ignore the noise” during the build-up to a game that Wales eventually won 2-1 to move into the second automatic qualifying place in Group D.

Captain Ben Davies described Mooney’s comments as “not helpful”, and Page said the issue has since been addressed at a meeting between himself, the chief executive and FAW president Steve Williams.

“It was a conversation all three of us needed,” Page said when announcing his squad on Wednesday for this month’s final Euro 2024 qualifiers against Armenia and Turkey.

“I’m not going to go into details of what was said. It needed to be done and only positives will come from it.

“I’m due to meet him (Mooney) after the press conference and we’ll have a coffee and a chat.

“Things were said and that was it. We all move forward in the same direction. Full focus is now on the football.

“It was frustrating, unnecessary. But I don’t want to spend any more time thinking about it. We’re all on the same page.

“We all know what we’ve got to do. It would be disrespectful from me now to the players to keep going on about it.”

Tottenham forward Brennan Johnson returns to a 23-man squad after missing the win over Croatia with a hamstring injury.

Page maintains stand-in skipper Davies will be fit for both qualifiers, despite the defender missing Spurs’ 4-1 Premier League defeat against Chelsea on Monday and also being in danger of sitting out his club’s weekend game at Wolves.

Sunderland defender Niall Huggins has won his first senior call-up and Portsmouth midfielder Joe Morrell returns after a two-match suspension.

But Aaron Ramsey is again ruled out with the knee injury he sustained in September, and Page says the Cardiff midfielder has suffered a “setback” in his recovery.

He said: “It’s disappointing, I found out on Friday last week. As we all know Aaron was pushing and pushing to be part of this camp.

“Unfortunately it’s come a little too soon for him. He’s had a setback. He got up to about 90 per cent. If you’d seen him on the grass, straight lines, everything was fine.

“But there was something stopping him from going to that last step. So it’s not great for us, but it gives others an opportunity.

“He’ll be a part of it (the squad). I had that conversation with him last camp. He knew he wasn’t going to play any minutes in regards to the changing room, but to have Aaron around the lads is definitely beneficial.”

Wales can avoid the play-offs in March by beating Armenia in Yerevan on November 18 and Turkey in Cardiff three days later.

Dropped points in either game will leave them relying on other results to join already-qualified Turkey at next summer’s European Championship in Germany.

“June was a bump in the road,” Page said of damaging defeats to Armenia and Turkey in the space of four days.

“We didn’t like it. We didn’t appreciate it. We didn’t like what we saw, but we put it right in September (by beating Latvia) – and some.

“We built on that in October and capped it off with arguably one of the best performances that I’ve seen.

“We have to build on that. It will count for nothing if we don’t follow it up.”

Aberdeen have expressed their “extreme disappointment and frustration” after their “robust” case for a 50-50 split of tickets for the Viaplay Cup final was rejected.

The Scottish Professional Football League has announced that Rangers will receive about 25,000 tickets – roughly half the capacity of Hampden – but the Dons will only be allocated up to 19,500 seats for the December 17 showpiece.

An Aberdeen statement read: “The club robustly put its case to the SPFL to treat both teams fairly with an even share of tickets, given Hampden is a neutral venue and, as such, presented an option that would split the allocation for the match evenly between both competing finalists.

“Much to our extreme disappointment and frustration, this proposal was rejected by the SPFL, who cited operational challenges and attendances at previous semi-finals/finals as the principal reasons for their determination.”

Aberdeen had proposed that they hold back five sections of the North Stand and hand back tickets to pass on to Rangers by a certain date if the demand among their fans was not evident.

An SPFL spokesperson said:  “Deciding ticketing allocations for cup finals is always a challenging task, as more fans invariably want to attend than the stadium can accommodate.

“We take a range of factors into consideration, including the number of tickets each club sells in the semi-finals, as well as their historic ticket sales in any previous League Cup finals and semi-finals.

“In addition, the design of the stadium and its ability to split sections is a major factor which influences our decisions, together with input from safety and security authorities to ensure fan safety and appropriate segregation.”

The league added that the split was broadly the same configuration as Aberdeen’s previous League Cup final appearance against Celtic five years ago.

There were 28,295 fans at the semi-final between Aberdeen and Hibernian.

The Dons were confident of selling a 50 per cent allocation given they took 43,000 supporters to Celtic Park when they last won the League Cup in 2014 by beating Inverness in the final.

Josh Doig, Anthony Ralston and Robby McCrorie have been included in the Scotland squad for the upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers away to Georgia and at home to Norway as a batch of key players struggle for fitness.

Goalkeeper Angus Gunn, captain Andrew Robertson, plus fellow defenders Kieran Tierney and Aaron Hickey – all of whom have been regular starters when fit – miss out through injury.

Verona left-back Doig earned a maiden call-up from Steve Clarke a year past September but is yet to win his first cap.

However, he will have the opportunity to stake a claim for a place at left-wing-back in the absence of Robertson and Tierney.

Celtic right-back Ralston – with six caps to his name – will vie with Nathan Patterson for the right-wing-back slot in place of Hickey. 

Uncapped Rangers goalkeeper McCrorie has been added after Gunn failed to recover from the injury he sustained while playing for Norwich against Leeds last month.

Motherwell’s Liam Kelly and Hearts’ Zander Clark – both of whom made their international bows in the friendly defeat by France last month – will hope to be given the chance to make their competitive debuts in place of Gunn over the next two games.

Along with Gunn, Robertson, Tierney and Hickey, Millwall forward Kevin Nisbet and Rangers defender John Souttar, who have also had fitness issues recently, are the other notable absentees from the squad.

The Scots are already assured of qualification for the finals in Germany next summer but could still finish top of Group A if they achieve better results in their closing two matches than Spain manage in their concluding fixtures against Cyprus and Georgia.

Spain are currently ahead of Clarke’s men by virtue of head-to-head and goal difference.

A racism case involving the Republic of Ireland has been closed by FIFA due to insufficient evidence.

A Republic of Ireland Under-21 substitute was allegedly racially abused as he warmed up during a friendly match against Kuwait Under-22s in Austria on June 19.

The Irish players walked off the field in response to the alleged incident and the match was abandoned.

The PA news agency reported in September that the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) had submitted a formal complaint concerning the matter to FIFA, but football’s world governing body FIFA has now confirmed that the case has been closed.

The FAI said at the time of the alleged incident: “The comment was heard by a number of Ireland players, who reported this immediately to match officials as well as to members of the Ireland and Kuwait team staff.

“Due to the nature of the remark made and with no affirmative action in relation to it from our opponents, the game was abandoned. FAI staff and players were fully in support with this decision.

“The FAI has offered its full and unequivocal support to the player who was subjected to racism and to his team-mates. The FAI does not tolerate any racism towards any of our players or staff.”

The FAI has been approached for comment regarding the closure of the case.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has previously spoken about his organisation’s determination to tackle racism.

Speaking in June, prior to the Republic of Ireland allegation, Infantino said: “(Racism) is a football-related problem and we mustn’t look for excuses like, ‘It’s society’s problem, therefore, it’s fine in football’.

“In the world of football, we must act in a very forceful way.”

He added: “There is no football if there is racism. So let’s stop the games.

“The referees have this opportunity in FIFA competitions as we have this process for stopping the game, and actions have to be taken at every level, at national level as well. Everyone has to understand this and we will go, together, until the end.”

FIFA has issued sanctions on discrimination cases in the past, with the football associations of Ecuador, Mexico and Serbia given partial or full stadium closure orders and hit with fines in relation to misconduct by their supporters at last year’s World Cup in Qatar.

As part of the Social Media Protection Service, teams and players at that tournament were offered access to software that – with the account holder’s permission – could automatically and instantly hide abusive and offensive comments on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube only.

Through the moderation element of the service, a total of 286,895 comments were hidden from public view before the targeted recipient or their followers had to see their contents.

Sunderland defender Niall Huggins has won his first Wales senior call-up for Euro 2024 qualifiers against Armenia and Turkey.

York-born Huggins qualifies for Wales through his Bangor-born father and has won four caps at Under-21 level.

The 22-year-old former Leeds full-back has been rewarded after some excellent performances for Sunderland which included his first senior goal, a stunning solo effort against Watford at the Stadium of Light.

Brennan Johnson returns after injury for two games that will determine whether Wales qualify automatically for next summer’s European Championship in Germany.

Tottenham forward Johnson missed last month’s 2-1 victory over World Cup semi-finalists Croatia with a hamstring injury.

Johnson’s Spurs team-mate Ben Davies is named in Rob Page’s 23-strong squad, despite missing his club’s 4-1 Premier League defeat to Chelsea on Monday with an ankle problem.

Portsmouth midfielder Joe Morrell is also included after serving a two-game suspension.

Morrell, who was sent off in the 2-0 away defeat to Turkey in June, replaces Hibernian’s Dylan Levitt.

Regan Poole and Wes Burns were both involved in last month’s friendly against Gibraltar but miss out this time after picking up respective knee and shoulder injuries.

Charlie Savage, Josh Low, Luke Harris and Owen Beck are also absent and set to return to the under-21 set-up for their Euro qualifiers against Iceland and Denmark this month.

Tom King is third-choice goalkeeper, with Adam Davies yet to recover from the injury which forced his departure from the Wales camp before the Gibraltar game.

Skipper Aaron Ramsey is unavailable because of a knee injury that has sidelined him for the last two months.

Wales meet Armenia in Yerevan on November 18 before welcoming Turkey to Cardiff three days later – and two wins would see them qualify for a third successive European Championships.

Group leaders Turkey have already booked their spot at Euro 2024 with Wales,  Armenia and Croatia contesting the second automatic place.

If they fail to make the top two, Wales are guaranteed a play-off place in March through their top-tier status in the last edition of the Nations League.

Full squad: W Hennessey (Nottingham Forest), D Ward (Leicester), T King (Wolves), B Davies (Tottenham), J Rodon (Leeds, on loan from Tottenham), T Lockyer (Luton), C Mepham (Bournemouth), B Cabango (Swansea), N Williams (Nottingham Forest), C Roberts (Burnley), N Huggins (Sunderland), E Ampadu (Leeds), J Sheehan (Bolton), J James (Birmingham), J Morrell (Portsmouth), H Wilson (Fulham), D Brooks (Bournemouth), D James (Leeds), N Broadhead (Ipswich), L Cullen (Swansea), B Johnson (Tottenham), K Moore (Bournemouth), T Bradshaw (Millwall).

Pep Guardiola has claimed Manchester City could be “in trouble” following John Stones’ latest injury setback.

The treble winners are awaiting assessments of the England defender after he was forced off with a knock in Tuesday’s 3-0 Champions League stroll against Young Boys.

Stones only returned to action in October after a two-month lay-off with hamstring and hip problems.

Manager Guardiola said he feared the 29-year-old could be out “for a while” with the muscular problem and described the blow as “deep bad news”.

Stones has been revelatory for City playing in a hybrid defence-midfield role and Guardiola feels he complements central anchor Rodri perfectly.

Much was made of the fact Rodri was suspended when City lost three successive games earlier in the campaign, but Guardiola believes the absence of Stones was equally crucial.

He said: “The problem is we play John and Rodri at the same time – now we are in trouble, because we have to play a bit differently, like happened in Arsenal.

“We do not feel comfortable still, we are not prepared to change many variations.”

City hardly broke sweat as they brushed past the Swiss champions to secure their place in the last 16 for an 11th consecutive year.

The holders have won all four of their matches in Group G and are through with two matches to spare.

Erling Haaland made light of the ankle problem that curtailed him against Bournemouth last weekend to open the scoring with a penalty and added the third goal with a powerful long-range strike.

It was yet another dominant performance from the Norway striker, who has now scored 39 goals in 34 career Champions League appearances and 15 in all competitions this season.

Opposition captain Mohamed Ali Camara even asked to swap shirts with the 23-year-old at half-time, something which drew criticism in some quarters.

“I’m a little bit surprised about that right now,” admitted Young Boys coach Raphael Wicky, whose side failed to muster a single shot and had midfielder Sandro Lauper sent off in the second half. “I’ll probably have a word with him.”

None of this worried Guardiola, whose side looked comfortable with Phil Foden also on the scoresheet.

“It’s not normal, but I don’t know the reason why it happened,” he said. “It’s not a big subject for me right now.”

City’s remaining task in the group will be to secure top spot, and a theoretically favourable draw, in the first knockout round. They face second-placed RB Leipzig at home later this month before wrapping up the stage at Red Star Belgrade.

Midfielder Matheus Nunes said: “We cannot look at those two games as spare because we want to get through as first place, and that’s what we will try to do now.

“We will focus on Chelsea now, but when those games come we will be ready because we want to win both of them.”

Kieran Trippier is refusing to give up on Newcastle’s Champions League dream after a bruising night in Dortmund left them with a mountain to climb.

The Magpies, playing in the competition for the first time in 20 years, sat proudly at the top of Group F on October 4 after a thumping 4-1 victory over Paris St Germain.

A little more than a month on, back-to-back defeats a the hands of Borussia Dortmund – the second of them a 2-0 reverse at the Signal Iduna Stadium on Tuesday evening – left them at the bottom of the pile with just two games to play, although former Tottenham full-back Trippier knows from personal experience how quickly things can change.

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The 33-year-old, who swiftly turned his attention to Saturday’s Premier League trip to Bournemouth, said: “When I was at Tottenham, we had Barcelona and Inter Milan in our group and everyone said it was done, but never say never.

“We got to the final that year, so it is a never-say-die attitude from us. We can’t control what happens, we just have to focus on Bournemouth and forget this.”

Newcastle’s current haul of four points from four games is equal to what Trippier’s Spurs had managed by the same point in 2018-19, when defeats by Inter and Barcelona were followed by a draw at PSV Eindhoven and then a 2-1 home win over the Dutch outfit.

They eventually secured second place in Group B by beating the Italians in north London and then drawing at the Nou Camp, where substitute Lucas Moura’s late equaliser ensured they edged out the Serie A giants before going on to reach the final in Madrid, where they lost 2-0 to Liverpool.

Five years on, Trippier and his current team-mates will travel to Paris later this month ahead of AC Milan’s December visit to St James’ Park, knowing they may need to win both games to make it out of the group and their chances of doing so could depend largely on how far their injury problems have abated.

Head coach Eddie Howe was without Dan Burn, Sven Botman, Alexander Isak, Harvey Barnes, Jacob Murphy, Matt Targett, Elliot Anderson and Javier Manquillo, as well as the suspended Sandro Tonali, in Germany and returned with Callum Wilson nursing a tight hamstring.

He will hope key defender Botman and striker Isak at least can play a part in the remaining group games, although Trippier was in no mood to use the selection crisis as an excuse.

He said: “Everybody has to stand up. There are always going to be injuries in football.

“The good thing about us is that as a team and a manager, we don’t make excuses. Everybody feels valued in this team and we have a strong bond as a team.

“The reality is we are missing a lot of key players. But you look at Manchester United away and Arsenal at home and we’ve got good results, so there are no excuses from us. Whatever team the manager picks, we give everything.”

Newcastle headed back to Tyneside wondering what might have been after passing up opportunities to cancel out Niclas Fullkrug’s opener when Lewis Hall’s driven cross from a short corner move evaded all his team-mates and Joelinton sent a close-range header wide, and they were made to pay when Julian Brandt cemented the win late on.

Trippier said: “These are the fine margins. We had a great chance from the set-piece routine – on another day it is a tap in, Joelinton’s header.

“There was nothing in the game, but at this level, it is about being clinical.”

What the papers say

Arsenal’s Thomas Partey reportedly wants out of the Premier League club with Italian giants Juventus considering tabling an offer in the January transfer window, the Daily Mail reports. The 30-year-old has played 85 games for Arsenal since his arrival in 2020.

Chelsea and Manchester United are interested in Inter Milan defender Denzel Dumfries but – according to the Daily Mail via Italian newspaper CalcioMercato – the club has slapped a £43million asking price on the 27-year-old Netherlands international.

Social media round-upPlayers to watch

Lloyd Kelly: The 25-year-old Bournemouth defender has attracted interest from Tottenham, Liverpool, Newcastle and AC Milan, but his club will reportedly turn down any approaches for him, Teamtalk reports.

Andre: Liverpool, Arsenal and Fulham have sent representatives to watch the 22-year-old Fluminense midfielder in the Copa Libertadores final. The Brazilian reportedly has an agreement to leave the South American champions in January for around £30million, Portuguese outlet Globo Esporte says.

Reigning champions Jamaica College revived their chances of a successful title defence, while Kingston College made a big statement, as both registered victories in their respective ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup quarterfinal encounters at Stadium East field on Tuesday.

Davion Ferguson’s Jamaica College, who lost their first contest to Hydel High, returned to winning ways with a 2-1 win over reigning Walker Cup champions Tivoli High in Group Two.

Elsewhere in the group, many-time champions St George’s College came from behind to secure a 1-1 stalemate with Hydel at the Ashenheim Stadium.

With those results, St George’s College remain atop the group on four points, same as Hydel but with a slightly better goal difference. Jamaica College occupies third position on three points, with Tivoli Gardens now out of contention for a semi-final berth.

In Group Two, Jaheim McLean’s all-important goal lifted Kingston College to a 1-0 win over perennial rivals St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) in a clash which was a repeat of last year’s semi-finals.

It was another lively clash between the two that could have gone either way, but Mclean’s 18^th-minute strike proved the difference, as Mona High and St Catherine high played out a 1-1 stalemate in the other group fixture.

The win saw the North Street-based Kingston College to the summit of the group on four points, one ahead of STATHS, while Mona (two points) and St Catherine (one point), remain in contention heading into Friday’s final round of games.

In the feature contest at Stadium East, Kingston College fired the first warning shot through Demario Dailey, who attempted an acrobatic finish that just went wide of the target.

STATHS settled into their rhythm and controlled the tempo of the game from there on, as they created a few half chances of their own which they failed to make count.

The Bumper Hall-based team was caught napping when a quickly taken freekick found McLean open and the player sporting the number 10 jersey had a decent first touch and an even better finish to send the North Street fans into a frenzy.

Though Kingston College led the contest, STATHS looked the more dominant outfit and the Phillip Williams-coached team almost pulled level on the stroke of halftime. A delightful strike from Alexavier Gooden from about 40 yards out rattled the underside of the crossbar and bounced on the goal line.

STATHS maintained the momentum on the resumption and should have pulled level three minutes in, but Andre Salmon went for power instead of accuracy from deep inside the 18-yard box. He was left annoyed by his poor decision.

With Kingston College content on sitting back, STATHS again went close in the 70th minute. Taraine Hall found time and space inside the final third for a stinging left-footed effort that was well saved by Malique Williams diving to his left.

The famed purples, much like they did at the start, had the last attack of the game, but Dailey’s effort from a distance came off the upright.

Winning coach Vassell Reynolds praised his young charges for their execution.

“I am very proud. It was a tough game, we knew it was going to come down to the last 20 minutes, so we relied on fitness. I believe we are a lot fitter than we think, so kudos to the boys they have been working very hard and I think it was a masterful performance from them,” Reynolds said in a post-game interview.

His counterpart Williams also felt his team gave a good showing.

“It was a good performance, we turned off one time and we got punished, but apart from that, the guys displayed some good football. This is a setback because it makes the last game (against Mona) a little tougher, but we have to go and do what we have to do,” he noted.

Tuesday’s results

Group One

Mona 1, St Catherine 1

Kingston College 1, STATHS 0

Group Two

Jamaica College 2, Tivoli High 1

St George’s College 1, Hydel High 1

Friday’s fixtures

Group One

STATHS vs Mona

Kingston College vs St Catherine

Group Two

Hydel High vs Tivoli High

Jamaica College vs St George’s College