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Arsenal are well-stocked all over the pitch and boast one of the finest squad depths in England, yet they continue to be linked with high-profile transfers ahead of January.

Arsenal overcome Brentford to go five points clear

On the pitch, Mikel Arteta’s side maintained their commanding lead at the Premier League summit with a professional 2-0 victory over Brentford at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.

The victory extended their unbeaten streak to an incredible 18 matches across all competitions, with Arteta seriously rotating his squad following a recent demanding triple-header against Tottenham, Bayern Munich and Chelsea.

Bukayo Saka, Jurrien Timber and Eberechi Eze were all rested from the starting lineup, but the Gunners’ strength in depth showed with Ben White and Noni Madueke combining brilliantly down the right throughout.

The opener arrived early on when White delivered an inviting cross that found Mikel Merino, who powered a header past Caoimhin Kelleher for his fifth goal of the campaign.

The Spaniard, who Arteta never expected to be the proficient going forward, has now netted 21 times in 2025 for club and country, showcasing his remarkable goalscoring form.

Arsenal suffered a blow before the interval when Cristhian Mosquera limped off with an ankle injury, compounding their defensive concerns with both Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba already sidelined. Timber then replaced the injured defender as Arteta juggled his limited centre-back options.

Brentford manager Keith Andrews introduced Igor Thiago, Mikkel Damsgaard and Jordan Henderson from the bench after an hour, while Arteta countered by bringing on Saka and Eze.

Arsenal controlled proceedings but missed several opportunities to seal the contest earlier.

Arsenal hold new talks with Juventus star who Alonso has recommended to Real Madrid

The Gunners are ‘captivated’ by him.

By
Emilio Galantini

Dec 3, 2025

To add further injury worry after Mosquera, Arsenal’s arguable player of the season, Declan Rice, departed late with a calf problem, with Arteta now sweating over his fitness ahead of a hectic Christmas schedule and the clash with Aston Villa.

Saka finally made the points safe in stoppage time, latching onto Merino’s perfectly weighted pass before finishing past Kelleher despite the goalkeeper getting a hand to the effort.

Given Arsenal’s injury curse which has plagued them since last season, sporting director Andrea Berta will be attentive to any unmissable transfer market opportunities.

Enter Real Madrid forward Rodrygo, who is reportedly up for sale this winter after playing a bit-part role under Xabi Alonso.

Rodrygo expresses wish to join Arsenal as agents open talks

Arsenal have already been linked with a move for the Brazil international heading into January, following exploratory talks over a deal last summer.

The 24-year-old has managed just three La Liga starts this term, making the vast majority of his appearances off the bench, with Rodrygo believed to be in the process of finding a new club.

That is according to TEAMtalk and reporter Graeme Bailey, who also state that Rodrygo has ‘expressed a wish’ to join Arsenal among four other Premier League sides he’s also interested in.

Crucially, though, the ex-Santos star’s agents have apparently reopened talks with Arteta’s side, who also ‘pushed hardest’ to sign him in the summer window.

However, Arsenal will need a minimum £70 million to strike a deal, with a loan appearing unlikely as things stand.

Berta and co, meanwhile, are believed to be monitoring his situation closely, which isn’t hard to see why given their bad luck with injuries, not to mention the uncertainty surrounding Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard.

The latter wingers are both out of contract in under two years, and with no sign of an extension for either, Arsenal need to think about long-term succession planning.

Rodrygo’s £282,000-per-week salary would put him in line with Arsenal’s highest earners, so it is an expensive transfer to pull off beyond just his club fee.

That being said, Rodrygo is also a player of proven quality, having racked up 68 goals and 53 assists in under 300 appearances for Los Blancos.

Bayern Munich were forced to come from behind to beat Sporting CP 3-1 at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday in the Champions League. A Joshua Kimmich own goal gave the visitors a shock lead in the game but the hosts hit back through Serge Gnabry. Teenage superstar Lennart Karl then sealed another impressive performance by firing Bayern ahead before Jonathan Tah wrapped up another European win for Vincent Kompany's side.

• Karl the star as Bayern come from behind

  Bayern thought they had broken the deadlock just minutes into the encounter. Karl controlled the ball and swept home a fine finish from just inside the penalty area, but the goal was chalked off as Gnabry had strayed fractionally offside. The hosts went on to have the better chances of the opening 45 minutes but couldn’t find a way past goalkeeper Rui Silva. Harry Kane was denied by the post, while Karl went even closer just before half-time after a jinking run but saw his effort palmed away by Silva.

  Those misses proved to be costly as Sporting stunned the Allianz Arena at the start of the second half. A quick break down the left flank saw Joao Simoes beat Tah and fire a ball across goal. A lunging Kimmich tried to block the shot but succeeded only in diverting the ball past Bayern stopper Manuel Neuer to hand the visitors a shock lead.

  Bayern hit back within 10 minutes courtesy of some criminal defending by the visitors. A corner in from the right by Michael Olise found Gnabry completed unmarked at the far post and left with the simple task of hooking the ball home to make it 1-1.

  Four minutes later, Bayern were in front and it was no surprise to see the irrepressible Karl netting. The 17-year-old ran onto a ball in the box, cushioned it perfectly on his left foot before lashing home with his right to put Bayern in front for the first time in the game.

  Sporting's resistance was broken and Bayern went on to seal the win through Tah. Kimmich went some way to making amends for his earlier own goal by pinging a ball from deep into the penalty area for Olise to head back into the danger area. His header found an unmarked Tah with all the time in the world to poke home Bayern's third to seal the win.

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  The MVP

  Karl enhanced his growing reputation with another stellar performance and a vital goal to ensure Bayern took all three points. Even with Harry Kane on the pitch, Karl looked Bayern's most likely source of a goal against Sporting and it was no surprise to see him pop up with the goal that put Bayern 2-1 up. Karl also wrote his name in the history books with his latest strike, as he becomes the youngest player in Champions League history to score in three consecutive games at 17 years and 290 days.

• The big loser

  Kimmich had an evening to forget against Sporting. A poor moment saw the 30-year-old inadvertently hand the visitors the lead as he put through his own net in the first half. Kimmich's frustrations then boiled over in the second half when a brief brawl erupted between both sets of players after Bayern had equalised. The Germany star was booked for his part in the proceedings to compound a less than impressive showing from the veteran.

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  Match rating (out of five): ⭐⭐⭐

Washington Nationals outfielder James Wood is one of eight batters that will compete in the 2025 Home Run Derby ahead of the MLB All-Star Game.

Wood, making his first MLB All-Star appearance, will go up against Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr., Braves first baseman Matt Olson, Rays infielder Junior Caminero, Twins outfielder Byron Buxton, Pirates outfielder Oneil Cruz, and Athletics outfielder Brent Rooker to try to become the Home Run Derby champion and claim the $1 million prize.

There is a total prize pool of $2.5 million for the Home Run Derby, with the winner taking a $1 million prize. The runner-up will receive $500,000, and each remaining participant will then get $150,000. The player who hits the longest home run will be awarded $100,000.

Though the $1 million prize would be more than Wood's current salary, and could easily provide extra motivation for him in the competition, he hasn't expressed plans to use the money lavishly. Instead, Wood said before the Home Run Derby he would "probably go to Waffle House" if he won the prize money, per Chelsea James of .

Wood will shortly get the chance to secure some extra funds for a Waffle House trip as the Home Run Derby gets underway Monday at 8 p.m. ET.

Arsenal have built an outrageously talented squad over the last five years or so, one capable of winning the Premier League and Champions League.

However, for all the incredible stars Mikel Arteta has signed over the seasons, from Declan Rice to David Raya, it would be fair to say his most important player remains Bukayo Saka.

The Hale Ender has transformed from an academy prospect into a world-class forward, and the fact that he produced his 100th league goal involvement on his 200th appearance at the weekend is a testament to that.

So, it’s incredibly exciting to see that the club are producing another academy talent who looks destined to become someone of Saka-level importance in the years to come.

Saka's academy career

Saka joined Arsenal in the Arsenal academy set-up at seven years old, after spending some time with Watford.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

The youngster’s first game for the Gunners’ U18 side came in a 4-1 loss to Fulham’s U18s in August 2017, and while he failed to make much of an impact in that game, he did end that season with eight goals and four assists in 22 games.

The following season started with the “future legend,” as dubbed by talent scout Jacek Kulig, continuing to play for the U18s while also making appearances for the U23s.

However, while he was used in the FA Youth Cup at the turn of the year, and the final of the U18s Premier League, it was increasingly clear that the young dynamo was too good to stay in that age group, and so the U21s became where he spent most of his time.

In all, the Ealing-born gem made 24 appearances for the U23s across 18/19, in which he scored six goals and provided nine assists, but something else happened that season: he made his first-team debut.

Former manager Unai Emery gave him a chance off the bench in a Europa League clash with Ukrainian side Vorskla Poltava in November, and then started him at home against Qarabağ FK a month later.

With him now featuring for the senior side, he would make his final appearances in junior football the following season, playing a single game against Everton in late August for the U23s.

In all, Saka produced 37 goal involvements in 53 appearances for the junior sides before establishing himself as Arsenal’s most important player over the following years, and now it looks like Hale End has produced someone else capable of doing the same.

Arsenal's future Saka

While last season saw Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly make it into the first-team, the Hale Ender set to become as crucial as Saka is someone even younger: Max Dowman.

It feels like the 15-year-old is the most talked-about youth prospect Arsenal have had in a generation or more, and it’s not just coming from supporters.

For example, at the start of last season, respected talent scout Jacek Kulig went as far as to claim the teenager was the “most exciting prospect” he had seen “since Lamine Yamal”, and considering the Spaniard’s absurd ability, that is an astounding thing to say.

As if that wasn’t enough, you also had senior professionals waxing lyrical about the youngster, with Rice labelling him “the best 15-year-old in the country.”

Finally, away from players and scouts, Hale End expert Will Balsam probably had the boldest opinion of the lot, arguing that the Chelmsford-born gem is “one of the greatest footballing brains that’s ever come through Hale End.”

As if that wasn’t enough, he also claimed that he’s “the biggest talent in England,” a statement supported by his statistics for the youth sides last season.

For example, in just 23 appearances, totalling 1945 minutes, he scored 19 times and provided five assists, which comes out to an average of 1.04 goal involvements per match, or one every 81.04 minutes.

Finally, what makes it really feel like he could become as big a star for the first team as Saka has is that in his few senior appearances, he has looked incredible, most notably against Leeds United at home and Newcastle United in pre-season.

Ultimately, there is still a long way to go for Dowman, but as things stand, he looks destined to become a world-beater for Arsenal.

Arsenal can fix Odegaard blow by starting their "best attacker" in new role

The exceptional Arsenal star can help solve Mikel Arteta’s Martin Odegaard problem by playing in a new position.

By
Jack Salveson Holmes

Oct 9, 2025

After another legendary night in a marathon Game 3, Shohei Ohtani got the ball for the Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series against the Blue Jays.

Most likely on little sleep, he tried to give L.A. a commanding lead in the Fall Classic, but Toronto had other plans. Once Ohtani saw walk after walk following a 4-for-4 start with two home runs and two doubles Monday, a big question presented itself for the rest of the series: Will Blue Jays manager John Schneider let his team pitch to the two-way superstar again?

Luckily for baseball fans, it seems that Toronto will throw some strikes to Ohtani as the electric series inches toward its conclusion. The Jays did a great job of getting past him in Game 4, squashing his incredible offensive power to even the World Series 2–2 with a 6–2 victory ahead of Wednesday's Game 5—L.A.'s last home game in the 2-3-2 series.

Here's how Ohtani fared both on the hill and at the plate Tuesday at Dodger Stadium:

Shohei Ohtani's pitching performance in World Series Game 4

The two-way superstar got his first start since his incredible performance with 10 strikeouts and three home runs to close out the Brewers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series. Ohtani didn't top that performance in this Game 4, but how could he?

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, he wasn't able to keep the Blue Jays' offense at bay, allowing four earned runs in six innings on 93 pitches. He let up a two-run shot to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the third inning, which was the first home run given up over his three postseason starts. Ohtani struck out six batters and let up one walk, giving up six hits before he handed the ball to Anthony Banda in the seventh inning.

Even though he wasn't able to leave L.A. with the lead, Ohtani is still having a strong postseason on the mound with 25 strikeouts in only 18 innings.

Did the Blue Jays pitch to Shohei Ohtani in Game 4?

Despite getting walked five times, four intentionally, in the 18-inning marathon Game 3, Toronto manager John Schneider decided to throw to Ohtani although he walked in his first plate appearance. Otherwise, he went 0-for-3 at the plate Tuesday with two strikeouts and a groundout. He hadn't struck out since Game 1 as he comes off a legendary performance Monday where he reached base an incredible nine times and hit two home runs.

We can't expect Ohtani to dazzle every night, that's not how baseball works. But, the living great has proved us wrong plenty of times before. Nevertheless, he came back down to earth in Game 4, which could be scary for the Blue Jays as they tie the series at two games apiece.

Ohtani remains tied with Corey Seager with eight postseason home runs for the most in a single playoff run in Dodgers history. We'll see if he can break the franchise record with at least two more games ahead of him as the World Series now turns into a best of three.

The Dodgers are gearing up for a title defense, slated to take on the Reds in MLB's National League Wild Card. With the series is set to get underway on Tuesday, Sept. 30, the team got some injury news on a pair of key players on Monday.

Max Muncy spoke to reporters and informed them that he'd be available for L.A. on Tuesday. Muncy had missed a chunk of the season with an oblique strain, but returned from the IL on Sept. 8. He's since been hit by multiple pitches, all against the Giants, and ended up missing the final few games of the season while dealing with a bruise on his leg. Fortunately, he appears to be good to go for Tuesday's playoff opener.

The other update the team received was to do with catcher Will Smith. The 30-year-old hasn't played since Sept. 9 and is dealing with a fracture in his right hand. Per Fabian Ardaya of Smith is expected to swing a bat Monday and could face live pitching Monday evening, if swinging feels okay. His status for the series remains uncertain.

The Dodgers finished the 2025 season as the No. 3 seed in the National League, and winners of the NL West. They're looking to become the first team since the 1998-2000 Yankees to win consecutive World Series titles, and having stars such as Muncy and Smith available will be critical towards achieving that goal.

First pitch for Tuesday's game in L.A. is slated for 9:00 p.m. ET.

The Mets are adding to the back end of the bullpen by making a major splash in free agency. New York has reportedly agreed to a three-year, $45 million contract with reliever Devin Williams, according to multiple reports.

The deal includes $5 million in deferred money each season ($15 million total) and a $6 million signing bonus that will be prorated across the three years, per MLB insider Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

Williams, 31, spent the 2025 season with the Yankees. He was a marquee offseason acquisition by the organization, who got him in a trade with the Brewers last winter. Williams failed to live up to his lofty expectations for the Yankees, recording a -0.3 bWAR with a 4.79 ERA, 90 strikeouts and 18 saves in 60 2/3 innings.

Prior to his down year in ‘25, Williams, a two-time All Star, had three consecutive seasons with a sub-2.00 ERA while dominating in a late-innings relief role in Milwaukee. In his career, he owns a 3.02 ERA with a 14.1 K/9 and 86 saves across 308 appearances.

The addition of Williams doesn’t take the Mets out of the running to re-sign Edwin Díaz, who hit free agency this offseason. New York remains interested in bringing Díaz back even after shoring up the bullpen with a three-year contract for Williams, per MLB.com’s Anthiny DiComo.

Greg Chappell, Mike Hussey and Brad Hodge go through the talent pool to pick two separate squads each

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jun-2020In the era of Covid-19, the cricket calendar will need be redrawn and there will be a crush to fit in all the fixtures that were deferred. It has even been suggested that two formats could be played at the same time. While that may not actually happen, it throws up some intriguing selection questions.If we consider playing a Test and a T20I on the same day, West Indies would probably have the fewest selection headaches, given they already have very different five-day and limited-overs squads.Tests: Kraigg Brathwaite, John Campbell, Shai Hope, Darren Bravo, Shamarh Brooks, Roston Chase, Jason Holder, Shane Dowrich, Rahkeem Cornwall, Kemar Roach, Shannon Gabriel.T20Is: Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Oshane Thomas, Sheldon Cottrell, Sunil Narine.But how would the three best-resourced sides in the world – England, India and Australia – fare in having two teams play at the same time in a Test and T20I?Australia have already gone down the path of picking two separate international teams, when, in 2017, the T20I side took on Sri Lanka at home while the Test team was in India. We asked recent selector Greg Chappell and former batsmen-turned-commentators Michael Hussey and Brad Hodge to pick two squads of 12 for the challenge. The idea is to treat the matches as equally important and pick the best balanced squads.ESPNcricinfo LtdGreg Chappell: My focus was to get the best team for both formats. Obviously Smith and Warner could fit easily into each, as could Starc and Cummins. I must admit I was not prepared to weaken the Test team to bolster the T20I team. Both teams are competitive in my view. And, to me, Cameron Green is the next superstar of Australian cricket. He is a genuine prospect with bat and ball, but I think his future is as a batsman who can offer some quality overs. Cameron is a batsman of rare talent. At 6ft 7in, he could become something very special. I would bat him at No. 6 to start with, but I reckon No. 4 is his long-term position. The sooner he gets to play at this level, the sooner he will become the player that he should be. He has proven that he can make runs at the first-class level, so the sooner he can prepare and play alongside Warner, Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, the sooner he will work out what he needs for the highest level from these champions.ESPNcricinfo LtdMichael Hussey: The process I went through was: I wrote down the Australian Test No. 1-12, then a T20I 1-12, and I put the players in that are definitely Test and definitely T20 players. With the gaps, I tried to find the right balance in a team with players who were maybe just outside the squad. David Warner was a tough one because he’d be a first pick in both the Test and T20I teams, but I wasn’t that confident in the other openers in T20. I know there’s D’Arcy Short, but I just thought Usman Khawaja was too good a player not to have involved, so that’s why he’s at the top of the order in Tests. Steven Smith in the middle is probably more effective in Test cricket, although very effective in T20s as well, and then Mitchell Starc is a tough one as well. His ability in white-ball cricket, particularly with the new ball and at the death in T20s, is just so good. I felt I could cover him in the Test team with the likes of James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins – more sort of Test specialists. It wasn’t easy, but two pretty good teams, I reckon, and hard to beat.Getty ImagesBrad Hodge: I thought Warner was irreplaceable in the Test side given his record opening the batting and averaging 50 is substantial, even though he has an unreal T20 record. I felt you could still replace him – you might not get the same output, but you’ll get something close to it with Marcus Stoinis or Chris Lynn up the top. If you took him out of the Test side, I think Australia are completely vulnerable to the new ball. Khawaja, I didn’t put him in just because he’s been dropped, and Nic Maddinson has scored a pile of runs in the last two years of Shield cricket and deserves a chance. With Stoinis and Moises Henriques, I went for more experience – taking Smith out of that XI along with Warner – ahead of Short and Mitchell Marsh.MSK Prasad, Kiran More and Ajit Agarkar each picked a Test and T20I team for India here. And Ian Bell, Mark Butcher and Graeme Swann picked XIs for England here

The possible return of David Warner should provide the batsmen with an ideal exemplar of proactive Test-match batting

Daniel Brettig06-Jan-2021As a Test-match debutant with an exhaustively documented history of struggle against short-pitched bowling, Will Pucovski’s problem this week will be a more acute version of the difficulty facing Australia’s entire top six, after their collective failure to fire in either Adelaide or Melbourne against India’s precision. The batsmen concerned will more or less know what is coming, having dealt with it previously and shown enough evidence of susceptibility. The Indian bowlers will have plenty of reason to take the same tack once more.In the instances of Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith and Matthew Wade, the successful corralling of scoring zones, whether they be boundaries or singles, has reaped rich rewards for an Indian team that knew before the tour that the traditional fifth-stump lines of attack had been proven faulty against Australia’s Nos. 3 and 4 in particular.The scenario, rightly pointed out by Ricky Ponting, has become one where the Australians are simply trying to survive after having their usual strike rotation zones blocked off. Against good enough bowling on a sporting enough pitch, this has primarily served to make them, in Ponting’s carefully chosen words, “sitting ducks”. The captain, Tim Paine, was of similar mind on match eve as he pondered how to escape India’s stranglehold.Related

• Talented Will Pucovski's tough road to the baggy green: a timeline

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“We’ve just spoken about mindset. We think we’ve actually got some decent plans, it’s just a matter of going out and having the courage to execute them,” Paine said. “So if you’re a guy who wants to take them on and hit over the top, or if you’re a guy or wants to sweep or reverse-sweep the spinners when they’re bowling – then we’ve just been encouraging guys to do that. To have the courage to take the game on and play the way you want to play.”At times, we’ve just let them dictate to us a little bit, let them build pressure. Then, with pressure, you get wickets at times. It’s about being really clear in your plans and now having the courage to execute it and do it in your way.”Being clear was missing when Pucovski plonked forward to Kartik Tyagi during the Indians’ tour game at Drummoyne Oval a month ago, and seemed to be both ducking and trying to play the bouncer that dented his helmet and caused the latest in a series of concussions. It was clearly also somewhat elusive until Pucovski received a second expert neurological opinion about the potential for his concussions to have long-term effects: the verdict, if not completely cut and dried, was favourable enough to have him in line to play.Will Pucovski stayed down after ducking into a short ball from Kartik Tyagi in the tour game•Getty ImagesWhat Pucovski will be seeking to remind himself, as undoubtedly the coaches and team-mates around him will too, is that on days when he has a clear mind and a focused approach – making early decisions on whether to evade or hit the short ball – he plays it as well as most. His state coach, Chris Rogers, was at Drummoyne and contrasted that incident with what he had seen before and during Pucovski’s two double-centuries in the Sheffield Shield to begin the season.”When I first turned up as coach of Victoria, him and Sammy Harper, they do a lot of work with tennis balls, getting in really close with a tennis racquet and firing them in at each other. Will’s done a heap of work where he wants to stand up and roll the ball down to fine leg. You’ll see that shot from him quite a bit,” Rogers told RSN Radio. “Then it came to the matches and we played SA early on and Wes Agar came on first change and went straight to bouncers at Will, and he pretty much ducked them for the whole first session.”Then after lunch he played one of these rolling pull shots and from there he never looked back. They targeted him with the short ball for prettymuch the whole game and then WA did it from about the ninth over onwards as well. He would have faced a heap of short balls and he looked comfortable doing it and the way he stood up and played it, he made it look easy. So when that happened on day three at Drummoyne, it was an awkward situation where there was nothing to gain and he probably just got caught in two minds, so hopefully he’ll learn from that.”

“It’s not like he doesn’t practice this, he does a heap of work. So they will bowl short at him, and hopefully he’ll be prepared”Chris Rogers on Will Pucovski

Paine, himself no stranger to being targeted by short stuff in the wake of the serious finger injuries and subsequent mental hurdles that threatened to prematurely end his cricket career, noted that in Test cricket, Pucovski needed to be capable of dealing with spells like the one hurled down by Mitchell Starc at the Indian tail at the MCG, where 24 of 30 deliveries were short. As much as the Australians have Pucovski’s welfare at heart, they also know that Test matches are played more uncompromisingly than any other form of the game.”Playing Test cricket is difficult and playing the short ball at that pace is uncomfortable,” Paine said. “I think if you’re someone who is perceived to have a weakness in that area, or even if you’re not, it’s part of the game. It’s how teams test your mettle, test what you’re made of, until you show otherwise. I think the short ball is a great option and it’s going to continue to happen. It’s a tactic that we’ve used so we expect to get plenty back as well.”I think it’s a tactic we use pretty consistently, particularly to the lower order. I think lower order batsmen are getting better and better as well so the fast bowlers’ pact of not bowling bouncers to each other is well and truly dead by the looks of it. They love peppering each other these days. I think it’s a tactic that’s already in the minds of batsmen when they come to Australia to play against our attack. We don’t have to show it in the first game. They know it’s coming; we know it’s coming and we know it’s going to come back so we’re also planning and thinking about it.”David Warner’s presence should help the other batsmen•Getty ImagesLike tailenders waiting for the short ball without total confidence as to how they might play it, Pucovski will need to put any thoughts about concussions and his unfortunate history to the back of his mind once he walks out to bat if given the opportunity as seems likely. A clear mind and an instinctive response to the ball coming down tend to work in symbiosis, with any hesitation at such high speeds likely to result in a wicket, an injury or both.”The worry is I think with him, when he does get hit, the effects linger for a bit longer than perhaps other people,” Rogers said. “It’s never nice, you just worry about him, but he’s the one who gets to make the decisions. He’s gone and sought expert advice, and good on him for doing that.”You just hope if it does happen again he’ll be fine, but that’s his choice and it’s up to him and if he does get this opportunity hopefully he can play well and get out of the way of them. The other thing about it is he’s done a lot of work on this as well. It’s not like he doesn’t practice this, he does a heap of work. So they will bowl short at him, and hopefully he’ll be prepared.”As for Smith, Labuschagne and the rest, the return of David Warner from a groin injury should provide them with an ideal exemplar of proactive Test-match batting, where no bowler is given the chance to settle entirely, even if the left-handed opener is judicious about which balls to attack. Success at the crease often depends upon how a player’s natural game can best be married to the challenges being presented by a particular opponent and the set of conditions in which they meet one another, and Warner has mastered this balance more often than most in Australia.”We want to be batting for long periods of time but how you do that is very much on the player,” Paine said. “Davey is known as a dashing opening batter, but if he goes out tomorrow and they bowl to him well then he’ll respect that and get through it.”He likes to be aggressive, no doubt about that, but he’ll play the ball as it comes and he’s got great hand-eye and great skill so he can often score a bit quicker than others, but I don’t think he goes out there with the intent of just taking it down. He goes out and plays what comes at him, and if they bowl well then he’ll respect that.”

Risking an early end to his career, the fast bowler declined knee surgery to play through the 1993 Ashes series

Daniel Brettig02-Feb-2021Imagine a fast bowler in 2020, halfway through an Ashes tour, facing the fact that a degenerative knee problem was likely to contribute to an early end to their career unless they went home to face surgery. In this day and age of sports science and data-driven decisions, it would barely be a debate – off to Heathrow.Twenty-seven years ago, Merv Hughes faced just such a dilemma in the midst of an Ashes campaign where he was the manful spearhead of an Australian attack that, while blessed with the abundant talents of a young Shane Warne, was also down to its final four bowlers for long stretches of a tour that began in April and stretched into early September. Fortunately for Australia, but damagingly for the remainder of Hughes’ playing days, he says now that never considered accepting the offer of an early flight home and the attendant career-lengthening rehab.At the end of the third Test, Hughes had knee trouble as well as a groin strain, and spent nine days on his own in London with the team physio Errol Alcott, working assiduously to improve his fitness in order to play the final three Tests. When the knee began playing up again over the final two Tests, putting Hughes in agony when he climbed stairs and forcing him into a limp whenever he wasn’t actually bowling, team-mates began to realise the cost. Hughes had, in the words of his biographer Patrick Keane, “given more than anyone had a right to expect.”It was not as though Hughes’ early exit from the series could not be covered: the likes of Jo Angel, Damien Fleming and Joe Scuderi were all in England at the time to play league cricket, and Mike Whitney was working as both a commentator for Channel Nine and a more-than-occasional net bowler to the tourists. Hughes, though, was committed to leading the bowling attack and paying back his captain Allan Border for the faith he had shown in him over the years before.Perhaps only Ryan Harris since then has come close to the extremes Hughes went through in carrying his troublesome knee through the six Tests, scooping 31 wickets and playing a huge hand in a 4-1 series victory. Undoubtedly, Hughes paid a personal price for his commitment to the team and the tour, playing only two more Tests thereafter, in South Africa the following year. This selflessness was key to why Hughes was an integral part of the Australian side of the Border era, and a worthy inductee to the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.”I had a bit of knee trouble, I think it was made out to be a lot worse than it actually was,” Hughes said, self-effacingly, on Tuesday. “Errol Alcott was the team physio and I trusted every word he said, he was one of my best mates when I played to be honest, but when he said you’re going to have a little bit of pain but it’s not going to get any worse, that’s where it was. I had the option to go home, yes, halfway through it, and if I had to make the same decision again I wouldn’t change it. To be on that tour from start to finish was very rewarding.Bowling with a bad knee, Merv Hughes took 31 wickets to help Australia claim a 4-1 Ashes victory in 1993•Getty Images”I think ’94 in South Africa was reward for contribution to Australian cricket. I thank the Australian selectors for that. But I’d come off an injury, there were some young guys coming through and I was very fortunate to get on that tour and by the end of that tour you had blokes like Glenn McGrath and Paul Reiffel coming through, and when they’re 10 years younger, the writing’s on the wall. Ultimately I don’t think things would’ve changed – probably the only thing that may have changed is I may have played a few more years of first-class cricket, but that didn’t eventuate.”The guys coming through were putting pressure on the old fella in the team and the old fella in the team couldn’t cope that well.”Repeatedly over his time in the Australian side, Hughes came through with big performances and big wickets, particularly in Ashes series and over several increasingly competitive bouts with the great West Indies teams of the period. After an initial phase when Hughes’ qualities were doubted by some, his quirky hat-trick over three overs at the WACA in 1988, and then heroic match figures of 13 for 217 either side of Geoff Lawson having his jaw broken by Curtly Ambrose, dispelled all reservations about whether there was real substance beneath his caricature moustache and beer belly.The crowds loved Hughes’ caricature moustache and his on-field antics, but there was genuine cricketing substance to go with it•Patrick Eagar/Getty Images”That’s where you really get measured, isn’t it, you don’t get measured by doing well against weaker teams,” Hughes said. “So to come up against that West Indies team having lost the first Test match … it was a great personal achievement but I think we lost that Test match by about 200 runs [169 runs], so the disappointment of the loss of the Test match overrode the emotion of a great personal achievement.”But the hat-trick, you try to explain to people that you didn’t know you were on a hat-trick, and people look you and go ‘mate, a hat-trick’s three wickets in three balls’, I know that, but when it’s over three overs, over two days and two innings and Tim May takes a wicket in between your first and second wicket, you tend to lose it. Plus with the emotion about Geoff Lawson being hit late on the day when we went back into bowling on the third day, to bowl for 20 minutes, I think you’re going to get fired up as a fast bowler anyway.”When you’ve seen one of your team-mates being hit, there’s just a little bit of extra spice to it. The eight-for was against a very good side, but ultimately if Geoff Lawson hadn’t been injured, I probably would’ve bowled half the overs and if you bowl half the overs you take half the wickets.”A spray of invective at the third of his hat-trick victims, Gordon Greenidge, was an example of the aggressive and often ugly way in which Hughes expressed himself on the field, the archetypal angry fast bowler who would use the short ball and his vocabulary to get under an opponent’s skin. Between these tendencies and constant battles with his waistline – at one point he infamously stomped on and shattered a new set of scales when asked to weigh himself – Hughes was a cricketer of his time, but with determination and courage to stand up in any era.Hughes, Dean Jones and David Boon were among the core group of players who revived Australia’s fortunes under Allan Border•Graham Chadwick/PA PhotosHughes drew immense personal satisfaction from the fact that the Australian team was constantly improving during his time in it, from the depths of the mid-1980s when the rebel tours of Apartheid South Africa had stripped the national cricket system of many of its established players, to the time when Hughes played his last Test in 1994 as part of an XI about to finally topple the West Indies and become the world’s best the following year. Later a national selector, Hughes has remained a consistent presence whether through tour groups or occasional commentary.”It was a tough time and people talk about that ’85 rebel tour to South Africa, and that came on top of just rebuilding from World Series Cricket in the late ’70s, so as Australia started to get back on their feet, that rebel tour came along,” Hughes said. “Fortunately for Australia Allan Border was appointed captain, Bob Simpson look over as coach and Laurie Sawle was appointed chairman of selectors. Those three blokes deserve a lot of credit for where Australian cricket got to.”They had a game plan and it was short-term pain for long-term gain and they picked a heap of young blokes and identified some young talent, picked a couple of guys who had the reputation of being tough and uncompromising and they had that senior core of players that led the way. The thing I look back on most satisfied with is that I played in an ever-improving Australian team. We didn’t quite get to the top of the tree when I was playing, but I look back at it with great satisfaction that we pushed the West Indies.”We pushed them in ’91 and the thing I probably hold closest is I think we were the first team to beat the West Indies in Antigua. They hadn’t lost in Antigua, it was Viv Richards’ last Test match on his home ground, and we got up and had a win there. I firmly believe at that stage was when we as a collective group of Australian players started to think we could match it with the West Indies.”As for what team-mates thought of Hughes, the following words from Steve Waugh of his efforts in England in 1993 are a fitting summary of both admiration and occasional exasperation. “He didn’t use his brain at all because it was all heart and that cost him in the long run,” Waugh told Keane in . “It put an end to his career in my opinion. I think he thought that ‘every Test I miss is one I can never play again’ and we were on a huge winning roll and he wanted to be part of it.”