8:51 AM GMT New Zealand loose forward Akira Ioane was on the brink of walking away from professional rugby last year until his father, former Samoa international Eddie, gave him a metaphorical “boot up the bum” and asked him if he would rather work a 9-5 job. “I came to, and said ‘no’,” said Ioane,
8:02 AM ET Editor’s note: Erling Haaland and Borussia Dortmund face eight-time defending Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich on Saturday (12:30 p.m. ET, stream LIVE on ESPN+) ERLING HAALAND WAS EVERYWHERE. Each time Norway played the ball upfield against Honduras at last year’s U20 World Cup, Haaland floated away from the defense effortlessly, the ball landing
7:14 AM ET “This was definitely not how this was supposed to go down.” The greatest American racer of his generation is on the phone. Jimmie Johnson is driving home from the racetrack and he is 100 percent correct. This is not how this was supposed to go down. Not this week. Not this year.
7:00 AM ET Back in July, I wrote a piece about the intersection between sports, hygiene and COVID-19. Much of it remains relevant, such as how frequent testing, face coverings and deep cleaning of high-trafficked areas can reduce the risk of infection. Some of it is very “writing about COVID-19 a few months into the
3:21 AM ET Manoj BhagavatulaESPN Less than a month after joining Roger Federer as the second man with 20 Grand Slam singles titles, Rafael Nadal now accompanies the Swiss in another exclusive club. Nadal’s Paris Masters opening-match win over compatriot Feliciano Lopez makes him the fourth man in the Open Era (since 1968) with at
7:12 AM GMT There is no hiding from the obvious: The Wallabies have played truly terrible rugby for the past 120 minutes. As a result, they have turned a promising first-up showing in Wellington and solid opening half in Auckland into an ugly 2-0-1 record that means the Bledisloe Cup has been filled with Steinlager,
Former British champion Ian Stannard has been forced to retire because of rheumatoid arthritis. The Ineos Grenadiers rider was one of the first riders to join the team as Team Sky in 2010 and his biggest wins came in the one-day Omloop Het Nieuwsblad races in 2014 and 2015. Stannard also helped Chris Froome and
12:45 AM GMT Reece Hodge will play his first Test for Australia at flyhalf against New Zealand in Brisbane this weekend after coach Dave Rennie made six changes to his starting side for the fourth Bledisloe Test. With James O’Connor still struggling with a knee injury that ruled him out of last weekend’s record 43-5
IPL 2020: Shikhar Dhawan has scored 525 runs from 14 games this season.© BCCI/IPL When Mumbai Indians began their title defence in IPL 2020, their anticipated pace spearhead, Jasprit Bumrah, was curiously out of form in the initial stages and was often outdone by other bowlers, especially Trent Boult, who led the attack for quite
4:24 PM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has brushed off suggestions he could be sacked following the humiliating Champions League defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir. United lost 2-1 in Turkey on Wednesday to increase the pressure on Solskjaer’s position. – Ratings: Fernandes, Matic both 4/10 in shock defeat– Stream ESPN FC Daily
10:03 PM ET UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya spent all week talking up his City Kickboxing teammate Carlos Ulberg, ahead of Ulberg’s appearance on Dana White Contender Series. Turns out, the champ wasn’t lying about his buddy’s potential. Ulberg (3-0) joined Adesanya amongst the UFC ranks on Wednesday, as he earned a UFC contract by
9:13 PM ET LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are reeling from the shooting death of Ericka Weems, the 37-year-old older sister of Cavs director of scouting Brandon Weems. James took to Twitter on Wednesday to make a plea for any information connected to the shooting. Weems was discovered Monday afternoon in the bedroom of
4:13 PM ET Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford missed Wednesday’s practice and was placed on the COVID-19 reserve list by the club. This means either Stafford tested positive for COVID-19 or was in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Stafford now joins linebacker Jarrad Davis on the COVID-19 list after Davis was
7:28 PM ET NFL NationESPN The status of some big-name players is in doubt entering Week 9 in the NFL, including Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, who was put on the reserve/COVID-19 list, and Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, who was a limited participant in Wednesday’s practice because of a hamstring strain. They join
4:05 PM ET Associated Press PARIS — Rafael Nadal became only the fourth man to reach 1,000 match wins when he beat fellow Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the second round of the Paris Masters on Wednesday. The 20-time Grand Slam champion joined Jimmy Connors (1,274), Roger Federer (1,242) and Ivan
Nov 3, 2020 The rematch between Dillian Whyte and Alexander Povetkin has been postponed until 2021 after the Russian was admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed that the fight, which was due to be held on Nov. 21, would now happen on Jan. 30, 2021 in a statement on Tuesday. “Firstly we
10:51 AM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show Oleksandr Usyk is pictured with promoter Eddie Hearn during the Usyk and Derek Chisora Press Conference at the Royal Institute of British Architects Photo by
5:58 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Catcher Bruce Maxwell, the only major league player to kneel during the national anthem in 2017 to protest racial injustice, has agreed to a minor league contract with the New York Mets for next year and will report to major league spring training. Maxwell was in the