Sporting briefs

Fabregas: Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas will miss Spain’s friendly against Colombia tomorrow as he is suffering from an upset stomach. The midfielder fell ill after Saturday’s league match against Newcastle and it was decided that he would stay behind in London and not travel to Spain for the match.

Gomez: Mario Gomez is out of Germany’s friendly against Italy tomorrow with a knee injury. The 25-year-old damaged ligaments in his right knee during Bayern’s shock 3-2 league defeat to Cologne on Saturday and will sit out Germany’s friendly against the 2006 World Cup winners in Dortmund.

Kelly: Liverpool defender Martin Kelly has pulled out of the England U-21 squad ahead of today’s clash with Italy. Kelly played the full match for Liverpool against Chelsea on Sunday but sustained a knock. The FA confirmed Kelly’s withdrawal ahead of the clash in Empoli.

Van Persie: Arsenal striker Robin van Persie has pulled out of the Holland squad for tomorrow’s friendly against Austria due to flu. Van Persie scored twice for the Gunners in their 4-4 draw with Newcastle at the weekend but has been deemed unfit for the clash in Eindhoven.

Asenjo: Malaga keeper Sergio Asenjo will require surgery on a right knee injury he picked up during a weekend league match and will miss the rest of the season. Medical tests carried out on the 21-year-old confirmed a tear on the ligament of his right knee.

Serie B: Livorno vs Vicenza 0-1.

Athletics: Australian Olympic champion Cathy Freeman yesterday revealed that she was expecting her first child. Freeman, a legendary Aboriginal sprinter with four Commonwealth gold medals and an Olympic title to her name, said she was safely through her first trimester. But the former 400m world champion said the pregnancy was bittersweet, triggering diabetes which left her injecting herself with insulin four times a day.

Rugby Union: Adam Ashley-Cooper has become the second member of the Wallabies to re-sign with the Australian Rugby Union over the past week after extending his contract for a further two years. Ashley-Cooper, 26, who made his debut against South Africa at Perth in 2005, follows hooker Stephen Moore, who re-signed with the ARU for another two years late last week.

American Football: Super Bowl 45 fell shy of setting an attendance record at the mammoth 1.2 billion-dollar Cowboys Stadium on Sunday. The league had hoped they would draw a record crowd by staging the final between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the palatial home of “America’s team”. But the an-nounced attendance of 103,219 fell short of beating the mark of 103,985 set at the Rose Bowl, in Pasadena, California, in 1980.

Cricket: Sri Lanka have missed out on a home advantage after being denied a chance to train at two new World Cup venues because of construction delays. The Sri Lankans open their campaign against Canada at the new Mahinda Rajapakse stadium in Hambantota on February 20, but delays in meeting building deadlines meant the venue could not be used for training.

Basket, NBA: Boston downed Eastern Conference rivals Orlando 91-80 on Sunday as the Celtics’ Ray Allen continued to close in on the record for three-point shots. Allen made two of his four three-point attempts to move within three of equalling the record of 2,560 held by Reggie Miller.