Category Sports News

Everton midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure has announced he will leave the club when his contract expires at the end of the season.

The 32-year-old Mali player has made 165 appearances for the Toffees since joining from Watford for £20m in September 2020.

Doucoure has scored 21 goals for Everton, including a memorable winner in their 1-0 victory over Bournemouth when the club avoided relegation on the final day of the 2022-23 season.

He joins veteran midfielder Ashley Young and goalkeepers Asmir Begovic and Joao Virginia in leaving, while forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin, midfielder Idrissa Gueye and defenders Michael Keane and Seamus Coleman are also out of contract this summer.

In a video posted on social media, Doucoure said: “Hi Evertonians – just wanted to share this message with you that I’m going to leave the football club at the end of the season.

“After five wonderful years, my time at Everton came to an end.

“Everton means a lot for me. Obviously the past five years it’s been hard but I will always remember my time as a dream for me, to play for Everton Football Club.

“Obviously I’m sad to leave the club but I think the time has come for a new chapter for me and the club as well and I will always be grateful for what the club did for me.

“My best memory, I will say it will be the goal I scored against Bournemouth to keep the club in the Premier League. I think this is something I will always be proud [of]. It was a wonderful moment for me and my family and for the club as well.

“I will miss the fans. I will miss the football club. I just wanted to let them know that I gave everything every single time in training, in games.

“I was always proud to wear the shirts, always proud to play at Goodison Park.”

The midfielder looked emotional as he was substituted in the second half of Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Southampton – Everton’s final game at their Goodison Park home.

The Toffees will travel to Newcastle for their last match of the campaign this Sunday (16:00 BST) before relocating to their new Hill Dickinson Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.

Doucoure added: “I gave everything to win the most games I could and I will just miss the place, and I wish them all the best in the new stadium.

Wales flanker Alisha Joyce-Butchers has announced that she is expecting a baby with wife and team-mate Jasmine Joyce-Butchers.

The 27-year-old was a notable absentee in the 2025 Women’s Six Nations and has now revealed: “We’ve been keeping a little secret”.

The baby is due in November, meaning Alisha Joyce-Butchers will miss the Rugby World Cup which kicks off in August.

“We appreciate there has been interest and speculation around my absence from the Wales Six Nations campaign but now you know why”, said Alisha Joyce-Butchers.

“We wanted to let all our family, friends and the Wales squad know before we went public and am sure everybody can relate to that.

” The morning sickness has been a new experience, especially while Jaz has been off playing rugby, but we are both delighted with our special news. “

Jasmine Joyce-Butchers said:” To say we are excited would be an understatement.

The couple are both professionally contracted players with the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and play their club rugby with Bristol Bears.

They recently signed new two-year deals with the Premiership Women’s Rugby club.

Wing Jasmine is also a three-time Olympian with Great Britain Sevens.

The WRU said Alisha Joyce-Butchers will return to the squad in a controlled manner under its new performance maternity policy.

“On behalf of the Wales women’s squad, the players, coaches and staff, the WRU and everybody in the Welsh rugby family, we send our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to both Alisha and Jaz”, said WRU head of women’s rugby Belinda Moore.

England will introduce minimum fitness standards for their women’s players next year, says head coach Charlotte Edwards.

Former captain Edwards, who will take charge of her first match on Wednesday in a T20 against the West Indies, was appointed last month following this winter’s 16-0 Ashes defeat.

The team’s fitness and athleticism was criticised during the tour and Edwards has said players will be made “accountable” on the issue.

“The players are very aware there will be minimum fitness standards come this time next year which they will have to adhere to,” said Edwards.

“There has to be more accountability in the area.

After England’s early exit from the T20 World Cup in October, former spinner Alex Hartley said some players were “letting the team down” in terms of fitness.

Athleticism again came into focus during the Ashes, but coach Jon Lewis attributed that to a cultural difference between the UK and Australia. He and captain Heather Knight were sacked after the Ashes defeat.

Edwards, who captained England more than 200 times, oversaw fitness testing of the players in her first week in the role.

While there were expectations and standards under previous regimes, there was no specific benchmarks players had to hit to be selected.

“Clearly we had to touch on the fitness issue,” Edwards added.

“When I came in I said it was all about individual improvement.

“Before the World Cup [in India in September] it is about individuals improving as much as they can in that time.

“I am not going to set fitness standards [now] because there haven’t been any standards in place so I felt I was defeating the object.”

England’s men have had minimum standards in the past but their approach has become more relaxed under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.

Elsewhere in the women’s game, South Africa dropped captain Dane van Niekerk for a home T20 World Cup in 2023 after she failed to meet the required time in the two kilometre run but have since relaxed their rules.

Edwards also said she is in “constant communication” with spinner Sophie Ecclestone, who was left out of the squad to play West Indies as she recovers from injury.

Ecclestone, who refused a TV interview with former team-mate Hartley during the Ashes, has featured in three matches for Lancashire in the past week, having not played for two months following the Women’s Premier League.

“I have had lots of communication with Soph,” Edwards said. “I went up to see her.

“When the squad was selected she hadn’t played a game of cricket.

“Between us both we felt the best preparation for the summer was to go back play for Lancashire and get some cricket under her belt.”

The first of three T20s on Wednesday, which are followed by three one-day internationals from 30 May, are also England’s first under captain Nat Sciver-Brunt.

As England prepares for the year that will determine his reign as head coach, head coach Brendon McCullum has urged them to improve their “humility.”

Before a memorable series at home to India and away in Australia, England play a one-off Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge on Thursday.

After a challenging winter, they continue to do so. McCullum’s team won a test series in New Zealand with a score of 2-1, but they lost in Pakistan by the same score, and they had to endure miserable white-ball matches.

The media’s comments have frequently been subjected to scrutiny. Fast bowler Mark Wood admitted they can be “a little dumb,” while director of cricket Rob Key stated in March that the players needed to “stop talking rubbish.”

New Zealander McCullum said on Tuesday, “It’s not just about what you do on the cricket field.” How do you carry yourself? It’s how you interact with the general public. You send the message, I believe.

In 2022, McCullum and England’s captain, Ben Stokes, took over and immediately changed the game. England won 10 of their subsequent 11 Test victories, including one win in 17 before the McCullum-Stokes regime.

England has a habit of producing shoddy performances despite being second in the world. Each of their previous three series finales, which included defeats to Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and New Zealand, ended in disastrous fashion.

Since taking over those teams at the beginning of the year, McCullum hasn’t improved their limited-overs results. At the Champions Trophy in February, England lost every game.

People were enthralled by the way we played, McCullum, a former New Zealand captain, said.

They felt a sense of belonging to that group and were enthralled by the freewheeling nature of cricket, I’m guessing.

The perception of the England team and some of the comments they make in the media are factors in the inconsistent results.

Former England captain Kevin Pietersen criticized them for not getting enough training during the Champions Trophy, who criticized them for their love of golf.

Stokes claimed that the notion that their training is impacted by too much golf was “utter rubbish,” while Wood claimed that he was irritated by an external narrative that reads “golf, golf, golf, golf.”

Any unrest between England and some of their supporters might have been fueled by media coverage. Ben Duckett and Harry Brook have a reputation for making awkward quotes.

McCullum agrees with Key’s suggestion that players should make their public comments more cautious. Instead of collective orders being given to the group, instead of individual conversations between management and players have taken place.

We just need to be a little smarter when making some of our comments, McCullum said. What you say in that dressing room frequently contradicts what you anticipate being said in a public forum.

We just have to be aware of that, smart enough to make sure we make sure we make sure we make sure we don’t lose touch with the English people when we have the chance.

After three fights with the PFL, boxing world champion Claressa Shields claims to be “done.”

Shields, 30, has won one fight in a row in MMA and is a multiple-weight undisputed champion. He has also won one fight in MMA since 2021, posting a 2-1 record.

The American claims she will now concentrate on boxing after her most recent MMA victory over Kelsey de Santis.

“It was enjoyable, but I don’t have the time to prepare for it.” To prepare for takedowns, it takes six to eight months. I broke my arm twice, despite my efforts and improvement. Shields told Ariel Helwani, “It was fun and I enjoyed every fight I did.

“I already excel in boxing, and to excel like that in MMA, I would need to train consistently for at least three to four years.

“It was a really strong MMA performance. It was enjoyable, but the work was too much.

Between her second and third MMA fights, Shields took a two-and-a-half-year break.

The Michigan native recently bolstered her world title collection with the undisputed heavyweight title.

Shields has won 16 fights and is currently the world champion in five different weight classes.

The Olympic gold medalist acknowledged that her family wanted her to concentrate on boxing, but that she did have aspired to become an MMA world champion.

She continued, “My family never wanted me to do it.”

“I still love the game. All ex-footballers do. We all love the game, but I just want this sorting out if possible and for anybody who has got this diagnosis to get help.”

Earlier this year, at the age of just 57, Andy Payton was diagnosed with dementia.

The former Burnley, Celtic, Barnsley, Hull City, Huddersfield and Middlesbrough striker scored over 200 goals in well over 500 appearances during his career in football.

He has now been told that his career is the cause of his diagnosis.

Payton’s initial symptoms gave the impression something was wrong.

When fellow former Hull City trainee Dean Windass came out earlier this year to say he had received a diagnosis of dementia at the age of 56, Payton felt encouraged to get checked himself.

“I was having symptoms such as bad headaches, forgetfulness, but for someone in their mid-50s probably a bit too much,” he said.

“The headaches were an issue and still are a little bit, but I knew that something didn’t feel right. When I knew Deano had been diagnosed I thought I’d go and get checked out. I could either get told ‘you’re OK’ or that ‘there’s a problem here’.”

After a brain scan, Payton received the news he had been diagnosed with early-onset dementia.

The scale of the damage to his brain and what the future might hold were particularly concerning to hear.

“It’s hard to put into words,” he said. “Things that were on the tip of your tongue just would not come out.

“Going off what they’ve said, out of the 60 tracts in my brain, 27 were damaged. You lose connection, as it were. I’m OK now, but it’s for further down the line the fear comes in a little bit.”

Would he have got tested were it not for Windass going public? Payton does not think so.

“I wouldn’t, I don’t think, because I didn’t know that you could potentially have tests,” he said.

Payton was told his career in football and the frequency with which he headed the ball was the cause of his diagnosis.

In his playing days, Payton was a prolific striker, scoring 81 goals for Burnley as well as having impressive records in front of goal for Hull, Barnsley and Celtic.

To reach the level he did, however, came with hard work in training which decades after his retirement have had their effect.

“I was in a bit of shock to begin with. Dementia and being 57 don’t go hand in hand,” he said.

“They explained it was from the impact of heading the ball. I knew that the position I played in and the training sessions we did, I was heading the ball 200 times in a session.

“From 16 years old, [there was] non-stop repetition, session after session, and that’s where it’s come from.”

Off the back of the diagnosis, Payton’s impression on how heading the ball is handled has changed.

“If you were to say to me now ‘should kids head the ball?’ I’d say no. I think they’ve stopped it at under-11s and even in training now they’re limiting it. I agree with that.

Football has changed in the period between Payton’s retirement and his diagnosis, and there is more awareness in 2025 of the possible dangers of heading the ball.

Asked whether he was told about the risks when he was playing, Payton said: “Not at all.

“I loved my career and I wouldn’t want to change much about it. Playing for Burnley and Celtic and especially my hometown club… but I’d be thinking twice because this is where I am in life now. If it could have been limited, if we could have known – but we do know now and things have got to be done.”

Awareness is one thing. But can the football industry do more to support former players who are now receiving diagnoses similar to Windass and Payton?

The Football Families for Justice (FFJ) campaign, led by John Stiles, the son of England World Cup winner Nobby Stiles, is a voluntary organisation dedicated to championing the rights and wellbeing of former players with neuro-degenerative diseases.

Former Manchester United midfielder Stiles, who died in 2020, had prostate cancer and advanced dementia.

His brain was diagnosed as having chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) – a form of degenerative disease dementia believed to be caused by repeated blows.

Asked how much responsibility the football industry should take for the health of former players, Payton said: “It’s massive. I think they certainly should do more.

“Jimmy Robson, who used to be my coach at Burnley, he passed through dementia. John Stiles’ dad was a World Cup winner and you can’t get higher than that in football. And he wasn’t looked after properly. That should come into it.

“Football and the billions of pounds around it… They should look after players that have got this because it’s come through football and nothing else.”