After being forced off during Saturday’s defeat at Manchester United, England international Enzo Maresca is hopeful Cole Palmer won’t need groin surgery.
Palmer has only started two Premier League games this year and only played 21 minutes for Chelsea before slipping to the sidelines.
Maresca told reporters: “The medical staff, they didn’t mention surgery. They asked if the 23-year-old would need an operation on an injury that has been bothering him for a while.
INCLUDE In Battle for the Ballon d’Or Glory, Rembele and Yamal compete.
I’m not sure if it will happen in the next few days or the following weeks, but let me be honest: I don’t know.
He made a lot of effort to try to play the game on Saturday. He passed the test, and he was unsatisfied. But he aspired to support his team-mates and participate in that kind of game.
We made the decision to change it because it was painful, sadly. And it’s more determined by day, week, week, game, and week, rather than by day, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, week, and then we make our decisions. ”
Romeo Lavia and Benoit Badiashile are both expected to miss Chelsea’s League Cup third-round match against third-tier Lincoln on Tuesday, with Palmer also missing.
Maresca likely will pick a number of young academy players, but the Italian acknowledged it was a risky choice because it had the potential to cause a cup debacle against a top-flight League One side.
Ousmane Dembele, the forward for Paris Saint-Germain, is expected to win the men’s Ballon d’Or on Monday while Lamine Yamal, the star of Barcelona, is predicted to defeat Aitana Bonmati for the second consecutive women’s prize.
A glittering ceremony will take place at the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris to announce the winners of an award that has been dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for a while.
Ronaldo and Messi.
Between 2008 and 2023, that duo jointly won the Ballon d’Or 13 times.
After leading Spain to glory at Euro 2024, Rodri captained them to the most prestigious individual award in football last year.
Dembele, 28, has emerged as the favorite among a list of nominees predominated by Champions League winners PSG despite Rodri’s absence from this year’s list after suffering an injury-hit campaign last year.
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The PSG team that for the first time defeated Inter Milan 55-0 to claim the European title is one of the 30 nominees.
Desire Doue, Achraf Hakimi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Nuno Mendes, Joao Neves, Fabian Ruiz, Vitinha, and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who has since moved to Manchester City, are among them.
Dembele would, however, have the edge after a stellar season that left Kylian Mbappe’s departing team with 35 goals.
That contribution made it possible for PSG to also win the Club World Cup’s final off of the grid.
Dembele, the winger turned center-forward, had a spectacular campaign for the French club, and Dembele had an even more extraordinary campaign.
When Dembele was questioned about what it meant to be a leading contender for the award, Dembele responded, “It is nice after what was a wonderful season with PSG.”
“We will see what happens, but I do believe it’s true that I’m one of the favorites.”
Due to the severe weather in southern France, many of the PSG nominees will have to miss the ceremony. However, Dembele could attend because she was hurt.
Yamal, who is 18 at the time, stands out among the other nominees because he has become a superstar at Barcelona and is regarded as Messi’s replacement.
He recently returned from helping Spain win the European Championship glory with his recent victory at the Kopa Trophy for the best player under the age of 21 at the previous year’s Ballon d’Or gala.
Last season, Barcelona won La Liga and the Spanish Copa del Rey, but they lost in the Champions League semifinals to Inter. He scored 18 goals in 55 games in all competitions.
Yamal recently said, “I dream of winning lots, not just one Ballon d’Or.”
Bonmati or the Lionesses, who knows? –
Aitana Bonmati, the midfielder for Spain, holds the trophy for the FIFA Golden Ball Award on the podium following the 2023 Women’s World Cup final game between Spain and England at Stadium Australia in Sydney on August 20, 2023. Izhar KHAN/AFP photo:
Instead of being voted for over a calendar year as in the past, the Ballon d’Or is now decided on the basis of accomplishments from the previous season. Viktor Gyokeres, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, Cole Palmer, and Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, the key players in Liverpool’s 2024-2025 Premier League triumph, are other notable nominees.
One year after Real Madrid boycotted the ceremony, Mbappe and Vinicius Junior were both on the list, upset that the latter had been overlooked for the prize.
One of the top 100 nations in the FIFA world rankings is chosen by a panel of journalists to win the ballon d’or.
The field appears wide open as Barcelona and Spain star Bonmati scores a treble in the top 50 for women.
Bonmati, 27, is a talented athlete who won the UEFA Women’s Euro in July.
However, Bonmati’s Barcelona also lost the Champions League final to Arsenal in May, and Spain lost on penalties to England in the same match.
There is no obvious standout from the England team that won at the Euros, which could benefit her or Alexia Putellas’ or her teammate’s, who is also a two-time Olympian.
Both Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton, the team’s goalkeeper, Alessia Russo, and Leah Williamson, who received the winning penalty, are nominated from that side.
If re-elected in 2027, President Bola Tinubu will not be in office after May 28, 2031, the Presidency has stated, confirming his commitment to democratic principles.
The speculation that the President wants to stay in power after his election as governor by former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, is “baseless and absurd,” according to the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga.
El-Rufai compared Cameroon’s Paul Biya to the Tinubu administration, who has been in power since 1982, during a solidarity visit from former vice president Atiku Abubakar over the weekend, making the claim that the government is veering toward authoritarianism.
Read more about El Rufai, a military regime in Nigeria, and the Tinubu government, which is worse than any other.
He also criticized the current administration for limiting federal principles, citing a threat to Nigeria’s democratic foundation.
“Sorry, sir, it’s even a disgrace,” I thought. It means that all the years of making claims like we are fighting for democracy and NADECO, and other things were just a fake again, for people to behave the way they are behaving. Because this government (Tinubu’s administration) is attempting to centralize everything rather than shifting authority to lower levels.
If we don’t work together to put an end to this Tinubu administration by 2027, Tinubu will try to be our Paul Biya, according to the article’s summary. This is how Paul Biya got its start, El-Rufai said.
However, Onanuga claimed that Tinubu’s claims are “unfounded” in his response to El-Rufai.
According to him, El-Rufai claims that the ADC’s plan to defeat Tinubu in 2027 is proving to be a mission that will never be realized.
According to his statement, “Former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai appears to need some assistance, especially given his recent unfounded assertions and rumors about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.” El-Rufai’s associates’ attempts to thwart President Tinubu’s likely re-election in 2027 have become increasingly apparent. This mission is destined to fail because the plot is becoming impossible to follow.
El-Rufai was undoubtedly surprised by the level of support the President continues to enjoy in the North after hearing about President Tinubu’s lavish reception last Friday in Kaduna. His claim that the area has abandoned the President is stark in contrast to this.
He then resorted to spreading more absurd and untrue stories, including the claim that President Tinubu plans to become a “life president” after 2027, which is nonsense and absurd.
“President Tinubu is a democrat who, when re-elected in 2027, does not intend to remain in office after May 28, 2031.”
By defeating defending champions USA to win the gold medal at the World Athletics Championship in Tokyo on Sunday, Botswana boldly made a statement.
In a time of 2: 57: 76, Lee Bhekempilo Eppie , Letsile Tebogo, Bayapo Ndori, and Busang Collen Kebinatshipi defeated the American teams’ season best of 2: 57: 83.
Read more about Sabastian Sawe’s victory in the Berlin Marathon in Kenya.
Botswana won two medals in the men’s 400-meter final, never winning one at the championships.
South Africa, one of the other African contingents, had a wonderful time at 2: 57: 83 but had to settle for the Bronze medal.
Botswana won the men’s 4x400m title for the first time in history on the global stage.
The World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 21, 2025, celebrate the men’s 4x400m relay victory. (Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP)
The largely unknown Busang Collen Kebinatshipi won gold in 43.53 seconds, the fastest time this year in the world.
Bronze was added by his teammate Bayapo Ndori.
Kebinatshipi remarked, “This is my first title, and it makes me crazy.” I had no fear in the end.
Sabastian Sawe, a Kenyan who only attempted the Berlin Marathon once, narrowly missing a personal best on his third consecutive victory.
Sawe’s personal best was 2h, 02, 16 seconds slower than his personal best of 2h, 02, 16 seconds, which he set in Valencia in 2024.
Sawe’s time is equal to the ninth-fastest in recorded history, but it broke Eliud Kipchoge’s course record set in 2022 and Kelvin Kiptum’s record of 2:00:35, which was set by him.
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Akira Akasaki from Japan came in second with a time of 2: 06:15, while Chimdessa Debele from Ethiopia came in second with 2: 06:57.
Akira Akasaki of Japan, Akira Akasaki, celebrates taking second place on September 21, 2025, in Berlin, Germany, in the 51st edition of the Berlin Marathon. Tobias SCHWARZ/AFP photo
The men recorded the fastest opening kilometer in the history of the race in the warmer than usual setting in the German capital.
Sawe and the rest of the pack, which included 2024 champion Milkesa Mengesha and Gabriel Geay, maintained the record-setting pace early and were within range of the world record after ten kilometers.
With 15 kilometers of running, Sawe cut himself from the leaders, allowing Mengesha to pass in 11 seconds.
Sawe, 29, had run two previous marathons with negative splits, but as the mercury rose in Berlin, he started to lose some momentum in the second half.
Sawe’s time is the best in the world for 2025, 11 seconds faster than his previous record of 24 seconds set in London in April, despite missing a personal best or challenging Kipchoge’s course record.
