Sporting briefs

Kinnear: Joe Kinnear, the Newcastle manager, was rushed to hospital from the team hotel yesterday after falling ill. The club said Kinnear was admitted "as a precautionary measure". Assistant Chris Hughton took charge of the team in the Premier League match at West Brom. Kinnear suffered a mild heart attack in March 1999 during his time as Wimbledon boss and later stood down from his post because of ill-health.

Murcia trouble: Financially-troubled Real Murcia may seek insolvency protection in a bid to save themselves from folding, the Spanish club said. Murcia, relegated from the top flight last season and down in 16th place in the second division, said they had appointed legal advisers to help draw up a plan to stay afloat.

Verbeek: Australia coach Pim Verbeek has accused Japan of being scared of his Socceroos side before this week's World Cup qualifier in Yokohama. The Japanese will train behind closed doors in the build-up to Wednesday's game to keep out Australian "spies", a move that Verbeek insisted was a sign of weakness. "It doesn't show a lot of confidence," the Dutchman said. "You have been training together for five weeks and still need closed-door sessions."

Heatwave: A sustained heatwave battering Australian's eastern and southern states forced organisers to delay the kick-off of the women's football international friendly between Australia and Italy in Canberra yesterday. The match had been scheduled to kick off at 16.00 local but was put back to 18.30 "in consideration of the health and safety of players and match officials" as temperatures in Australia's capital city approached 40 degrees Celsius.

Zidan: Borussia Dortmund striker Mohamed Zidan has been recalled to Egypt's squad for the first time since being accused of faking injury to miss a series of World Cup matches in June. Zidan has been included in a 23-man squad for a friendly against Ghana in Cairo on Wednesday, the match serving as a final warm-up before Egypt begin the last phase of African qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.