Before we get on to more pressing matters on the home front, spare a thought for Manchester City. Ah no, do. After being found guilty of breaching a nigh on unending list of Premier League financial rules by creating “sham” contracts to help inflate revenue by more than £900 million over a nine-year period, their most glamorous game in the next season or two could be a tussle with Dagenham & Redbridge. Spare a thought for their centre-halves when they come up against Erling Haaland.
Back home, Ireland are limbering up for tomorrow evening’s Nations League game against Austria at the Aviva Stadium, Jack Moylan’s form going in to the game catching Malachy Clerkin’s eye. “In another world, under normal circumstances, he would be the story of the international window,” he writes, “the story of the past two windows, in fact.”
Heimir Hallgrímsson would be forgiven for having no clue what Austrian side Ireland will face, seeing as their head coach, Ralf Rangnick, used 24 players in their opening two Nations League games. Guessing games, then.
There’s considerably more stability in the squad named by Carla Ward on Tuesday for the upcoming World Cup qualifying play-off games against Kazakhstan, although she did spring one surprise by calling up English-born Crystal Palace midfielder Shanade Hopcroft.
Speaking of Kazakhstan - our under-21 men’s team were put through the wringer by those very opponents in Cork on Tuesday evening, needing a late penalty to see them off in a seven-goal humdinger. Michael Scully fills you in.
In rugby, John O’Sullivan profiles Luan Giliomee, the brilliant 20-year-old South African who Leinster will face on Saturday when they take on the Durban Sharks in the URC. And Michael Scully hears from an exceedingly busy Conor O’Tighearnaigh, the Leinster secondrow currently combining his rugby with studying medicine at UCD.
Ahead of Connacht’s URC trip to Italy on Friday, where they will play Benetton, Gerry Thornley talks to Cathal Forde, and we have the latest from the Munster camp as they prepare for the visit of the Pretoria Bulls on Saturday. Ulster, meanwhile, will have several Ireland internationals available for their game away to Glasgow Warriors, but Robert Baloucoune is ruled out having suffered a concussion against Edinburgh.
In Gaelic games, Gordon Manning has news on proposed changes to the Leinster Hurling Championship which are likely to go before Congress in February, and on the football front Éamonn Fitzmaurice has emerged as the front-runner to succeed Pádraic Joyce as Galway manager.
And while some of us would need to be paid to even contemplate taking on a marathon, the 22,500 souls who will run the race in Dublin on October 25th will be paying for the privilege - and next year’s entry fee has increased by 18 per cent to €130.
TV Watch: It’s a relatively quiet sporting night on the telly box, but if you’re gumming for some club football and you have access to Disney Plus, you have a string of women’s Champions League games to choose from - including defending champions Barcelona away to Roma (5.45pm) and Katie McCabe’s Chelsea away to OL Lyonnes (8pm).
