WORLD

LIONEL MESSI appeared to take a tablet from his sock and chew it during Barcelona’s win over Olympiakos last night. The game was only nine minutes old when Messi was caught on TV cameras fiddling with his left sock. He then appears to take something out of it before putting the pill in his mouth and resuming the game. According ...

Leicester City have sacked manager Craig Shakespeare just four months after he signed a three-year deal to take the job on a permanent basis. The Foxes are third from bottom in the Premier League and have not won any of their past six league matches. Shakespeare, 53, succeeded title winner Claudio Ranieri in February, initially on a temporary basis. After ...

Hertha Berlin’s Ivorian forward Salomon Kalou compared racism to terrorism as he explained why his Bundesliga side “took the knee” on Saturday. Before the game against Schalke, Hertha staff copied the protests started by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick against treatment of black Americans. “It’s like terrorism – either you’re against it or for it,” said Kalou, 32. “If you don’t ...

In an attempt to tackle obesity on its campus, a university in Jiangsu, China, is offering overweight students the chance to enroll in a special weight-loss program, where they will receive their grades based on how much weight they shed and on how well they do in class. Zhou Quanfu, a lecturer at the Nanjing Agriculture University, came up with ...

Christian Atsu’s Premier League club Newcastle United have been put up for sale by owner Mike Ashley. The Ghana international made his move to the Magpies permanent this season after a successful loan spell. He was vital as Newcastle earned promotion to the top flight. The Magpies have been relegated twice from the English top flight during Ashley’s 10-year reign. ...

Egypt will compete at the 2018 African Nations Championship in Morocco, despite being eliminated in the qualifying competition two months ago. The Egyptians lost 4-2 on aggregate to Morocco, who are now automatic competitors in the 16-team event having replaced Kenya as hosts. This opened the door for Egypt to be reinstated into the biennial tournament restricted to home-based footballers. ...

Lagos – The leader of a pro-Biafran separatist group in Nigeria has apparently gone missing, prompting speculation as to his whereabouts on the eve of his trial on treason charges. Nnamdi Kanu, who heads the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, has not been seen in public since troops were deployed to the southeastern city of Umuahia last month. Kanu, ...

LIVERPOOL boss Jurgen Klopp jokingly suggested he was a “charismatic, funny, loser” when being compared with the likes of Jose Mourinho. Liverpool take on Maribor in the Champions League tomorrow night and the German was talking to the media when a Slovenian journalist prompted him to give a hilarious assessment of himself. The journalist suggested Jurgen Klopp is admired for his charisma ...

London – YouTube has lifted restrictions from videos showing Swaziland’s reed dance, which feature bare-breasted women. A spokesperson for the video-sharing platform told the BBC that YouTube allows nudity when “culturally relevant or properly contextualised”. The move was in response to a campaign led by Lazi Dlamini, the head of TV Yabantu, an online video production company, featuring Africa’s “finest ...

MICHY BATSHUAYI will leave Chelsea in January because Antonio Conte doesn’t rate him. That’s the view of former Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino. Batshuayi has struggled to make a name for himself at Stamford Bridge under Antonio Conte since his summer move from Marseille in 2016. The Belgian played second fiddle to Diego Costa last term and looks to be doing ...