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General Sports News

Heskey sits out Ukraine clash

Author: Rose Young
Date: 29/03/2009

Striker Emile Heskey has been ruled out of England's World Cup qualifier against Ukraine at Wembley due to a hamstring injury.

Tottenham Hotspur frontman Darren Bent has been called up by Fabio Capello for the midweek action, with the Italian having anticipated that Heskey would miss out on Wednesday.

Heskey damaged his left hamstring early on in the 4-0 friendly win over Slovakia, having already opened the scoring at Wembley, while his replacement on Saturday, Carlton Cole, will also miss out due a thigh problem.

England coach Fabio Capello had previously ruled out another couple of players as replacements for Heskey and Cole, saying: "Michael Owen played 20 minutes in his last game, it is not enough and it would not be Kevin Davies either."

Meanwhile, former Internazionale coach Roberto Mancini is set to reach an agreement with the San Siro club to allow him to start looking for work elsewhere.

Mancini was axed by Inter last summer and has been in negotiations over a severance package, with his contract having been due to run until the summer of 2012.

His agent, Giorgio De Giorgis, told Sky Italia: "There have been talks and we have nearly reached an agreement."

In Formula One, Jenson Button has warned betting experts that there is more to come from Brawn GP after they secured a one-two on their debut at the Australian Grand Prix.

Button led from start to finish at Melbourne to clinch a superb victory, with team-mate Rubens Barrichello recovering from a poor start to finish second.

Afterwards, Button said: "It was an amazing day. I have to say a massive thanks to everyone because it's been a hugely traumatic few months - I can't exaggerate how tough it's been - but this is the perfect start.

"I know I've said it before but it's true, we deserve this, I really feel we do.

"We can definitely improve our restarts and I really struggled to get temperature into the tyres as well.

"I also made a mistake in the first pit stop, so there's more to come from both me and the team. I made it difficult for us, but we got there."

In rugby union, coach Dean Ryan praised his Gloucester side after they won 17-0 against holders Ospreys in the semi-finals of the EDF Energy Cup.

Twelve points from Ryan Lamb and a late try from Iain Balshaw gave Gloucester victory at Coventry's Ricoh Arena and set up a final showdown with Cardiff Blues.

Ryan commented afterwards: "It was an outstanding defensive display. Our willingness to work in defence really came through.

"People put themselves on the line. We had to front up physically and if that performance answers some of the criticisms of us, then great. The quality of our defence stopped the Ospreys."

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