South Korea star out of World CupEspn | London

South Korea’s World Cup hopes suffered a major blow

on Saturday as star midfielder Kwon Chang-hoon sustained an Achilles injury that is set to rule the 23 year-old out of the tournament.

With 14 minutes remaining in the final game of the French campaign, Kwon, Korea’s most in-form player with 11 goals for Dijon FCO this season, limped off the pitch against Angers.

The exact nature of the injury has yet to be determined but in a statement released by Dijon, the club said it is “probably a rupture of the Achilles tendon, even if it is necessary to wait for the results of the examination.

“One thing is certain, he will miss the World Cup in Russia.”

Korean media reports stated

that the injury is serious and it is expected that the player, who joined Dijon in January 2017, will be out of action for some time.

South Korea kick off Group F against Sweden on June 18 before taking on Mexico and Germany. Kwon was expected to arrive back in Korea on Sun-

day, a day before the start of the national team’s training camp.

It is the latest and most seri-ous in a series of injury worries for coach Shin Tae-yong.

Korean media reports stated

that the injury is serious and it is

expected that the player will be out of action for some

time

20MONDAY, MAY 21, 2018

P L A Y E R O F T H E D A Y

Eden Hazard Speedy, skilful and a master at both creating and scoring goals, Hazard is one of the most exciting forwards in world football. The Chelsea star served up six goals and five assists during Belgium’s impressive qualifying campaign.

Team England ready for racism in Russia England open their World Cup campaign against Tunisia in Volgograd on June 18

AFP | London

England are to receive ad-vice on how to deal with potential racist incidents

they may encounter at the up-coming World Cup in Russia, according to manager Gareth Southgate.

There are concerns that rac-ism has become endemic within Russian football and earlier this month the country’s football association was fined 30,000 Swiss francs (25,000 euros) by global governing body FIFA fol-lowing racist chants by support-ers during a friendly interna-tional against France in March.

France’s Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba and Bar-celona winger Ousmane Dem-bele were the target of monkey chants during their side’s 3-1 win over Russia in Saint Peters-burg.

“We work with our players on how we will support each other if anything like that was to happen,” said Southgate. “There would be some official protocol to follow if it did happen but we really hope it is a situation that doesn’t emerge, and that it’s a festival of football we are talking about on the pitch and not talk-ing about things off the field.”

Southgate, a former England international, added: “The most important thing is that inter-nally we are able to support our players if something does hap-pen and they understand how their team-mates and our staff are going to go about that.

“There are some sessions we will do with them about that, and then there is the official protocol to be followed. As a federation I think we would be strong in pushing for the right solutions within that.

“So we have everything in place, but most importantly is that internally the players feel they have that level of support.”

England open their World Cup campaign against Tunisia in Volgograd on June 18.

Racism has plagued Russian football since clubs began pur-chasing foreign players after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

The Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) anti-discrim-ination network reported 89 racist and far-right incidents at Russian games in the 2016-2017 season. The number was about the same as that recorded in the preceding three seasons -- an indication that the Russian Football Union’s attempts to eradicate the problem have yet to succeed.

24 days to go……

England Manager Gareth Southgate with players during the warm-up

“We work with our players on how we will support each

other if anything like that was to happen”

GARETH SOUTHGATE

© GRAPHIC NEWS

FIFA have unveiled the official match ball for the World Cup in Russia.The new adidas Telstar 2018 harks back to their first match ball in 1970

Sources: FIFA, adidas

2014 BRAZUCA

Mexico: Designedfor black-and-whiteTV – 32 hand-stitched leatherpanels

1970-74 TELSTARArgentina, Spain:Sealed seams cutwater intake

1978-82 TANGO

Mexico: Firstsynthetic ball withimproved durability

1986 AZTECAItaly: Polyurethanefoam layer increasesresponse and waterresistance

1990 ETRUSCO

U.S.: Polyethylenefoam increasesenergy return,boosts speed

1994 QUESTRAFrance: Syntacticfoam matrix layerfurther increasesenergy return

1998 TRICOLORE

Korea/Japan:Durable wovenchassis, syntacticfoam. Speed canexceed 130km/h

2002 FEVERNOVAGermany: 14-panelthermal-bonded layer.Surface respondsmore evenly for bettercontrol

2006 TEAMGEIST

Russia: Modern interpretation of theiconic Telstar which was used from1970-74, based on similar carcass to2014 Brazuca

Six panels glued in seamlessconstruction, withdistinct 3D texturedsurface for greatercontrol and grip

TELSTAR 2018

South Africa: Eightpanels. Aerogrooves improveflight stability

Brazil: Sixthermally-bondedTPU panels

2010 JABULANI

Kwon Chang-hoon

Japan name Honda, Kagawa in WC squadAP | Tokyo

New Japan coach Akira Nishino named Keisuke

Honda and Shinji Kagawa to Ja-pan’s squad for an internation-al friendly on May 30 against Ghana in Yokohama.

Japan are expected to name their final 23-man squad for the World Cup on May 31, several days ahead of the June 4 dead-line. The two had struggled to make the team under former coach Vahid Halilhodzic, but Nishino made it clear they are critical.

“You all probably know their

play well, and they’re vital to the national team,” Nishino told reporters. “I hope they will maintain their performance and contribute.”

Friday’s announcement was the first indication about which players Nishino has in mind for the World Cup.

Japan fired Halilhodzic last month and replaced him with Nishino.

Honda has seven goals with Mexican side Pachuca this sea-son. The attacking midfielder fell out of favour with Halilhod-zic, who benched him during qualifying matches.Keisuke Honda Shinji Kagawa

Payet’s snub on TV irks player’s motherAFP | London

France coach Didier Des-champs has faced criticism

for not personally informing Marseille forward Dimitri Pay-et he would not be going to the World Cup -- from the player’s mother.

Asked on TF1’s Telefoot show if her son had been personally informed by Deschamps that he was not part of the plans for Russia 2018, she replied:

“No. He found out watching on television like everyone else, with the family.”

Deschamps said the failure to call the forward, who had been prominent in the Euro 2016 campaign, had been a logistical one.

“I had a list of 23 players to deliver and many things to do so with the limited time I had, unhappily for Dimitri Payet I didn’t get round to it,” the coach explained.

Payet was far from alone as Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, Manchester United forward Anthony Martial and Arsenal’s Alexander Lacazette were all left off a multi-talent-ed roster.

Antoine Griezmann will lead France’s attack, most likely alongside Kylian Mbappe or Olivier Giroud.

Strikers Ousmane Dembe-le (Barcelona), Nabil Fekir (Lyon) and Florian Thauvin (Marseille) all provide solid back-up options.Dimitri Payet

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