Brazil star Dani Alves faces a race against time to be fit for the World Cup after his club Paris Saint-Germain said he would be out for at least three weeks with a knee injury. 
The 35-year-old right-back suffered the injury playing in Tuesday’s French Cup final against Les Herbiers, coming off four minutes from the end as PSG beat the minnows 2-0. 
The French champions said in a statement that tests yesterday had shown damage to the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. They said he will require “at least three weeks of treatment before reassessing the need for surgery.”
The injury is a potentially massive blow to Alves and Brazil, with national coach Tite set to announce his squad for the World Cup next Monday. Brazil have already been sweating on the fitness of Alves’ PSG teammate Neymar, who underwent surgery on a foot injury two months ago and has not played since. 
Tite must now decide whether he can afford to take a risk on the fitness of the former Barcelona star Alves, who won the 38th major honour of his career on Tuesday.
 There may be time for him to recover, though, as Brazil play their first World Cup match against Switzerland in Rostov-on-Don on June 17, five and a half weeks away. 
They will also take on Costa Rica and Serbia in Group E in Russia.
Barca’s Roberto handed four-game ban 
Barcelona defender Sergi Roberto will miss the rest of the Liga season and the first match of the next campaign after being given a four-game ban for striking Real Madrid’s Marcelo in last Sunday’s tension-filled 2-2 draw at the Nou Camp.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) announced the ban for “assaulting another player” in its weekly disciplinary statement. Roberto was given a straight red card in first-half injury time for the incident with the Brazilian during an off-the-ball tussle on the edge of Barca’s area.
Referee Alejandro Hernandez Hernandez wrote in his report on the game that the player had been sent off for “striking an opponent with his arm with excessive force while the ball was not near enough to be in dispute”.
Roberto was already banned for last night’s game at home to Villarreal and will now miss the final games at Levante and at home to Real Sociedad as champions Barcelona bid to become the first team to end a Liga season without defeat since 1933.
The Spain international will also be suspended for the first Liga game of next season when Barca begin their title defence. Sunday’s ‘Clasico’ saw a total of eight players earn yellow cards in addition to Roberto’s straight red and witnessed angry confrontations on the pitch between Real captain Sergio Ramos and Barcelona forwards Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.

Doctors want more time to determine Astori death
Doctors who carried out the autopsy on the body of Italian footballer Davide Astori have asked for another 30 days before giving a verdict, it was reported yesterday. The Italy international and Fiorentina captain was found dead in his hotel room in the north-eastern city of Udine on March 4 ahead of a Serie A match against Udinese.
An initial post mortem suggested the 31-year-old died due to bradyarrhythmia — when the heart slows so much it stops — but the causes of this are unclear. According to news agencies, doctors Carlo Moreschi and Gaetano Thiene have asked the public prosecutor for another 30 days for further investigations including more toxicology tests, as well as genetic testing. An investigation was opened into possible manslaughter, which is standard procedure in Italy when a death is unexplained.

Everton must offload players: Allardyce
Everton will trim their squad ahead of next season to facilitate the arrival of “top quality” players who can help them qualify for Europe, the Premier League club’s manager Sam Allardyce has said. Everton recruited heavily this season, spending over 140mn pounds ($189.38mn) in the summer and about 47mn pounds in January but even those huge sums were unable to see them earn a place in Europe.
“There’s a huge amount of players at the club already and one of the greatest challenges will be what players are going to leave,” Allardyce said. “We have 14 players out on loan and we have a squad of about 38. There’s going to have to be ins and outs. You can’t continue to bring players in without moving some out.”
A poor start to the campaign led to the sacking of manager Ronald Koeman in October and Allardyce tasked with getting the Merseyside club out of the bottom half of the table. Everton have become tough to beat under Allardyce though some fans have been unhappy with the quality of football on display. “There’s a growing expectation for Everton to compete more and more into the European places...
the top quality player is the only player that we should be looking at,” added Allardyce. “If that’s only one or two that’ll make a massive difference next season.”


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