Sporting briefs...

Beckham: Back pains prevented England captain David Beckham from completing training with Real Madrid yesterday but the club said he will be available for tomorrow's clash against arch-rivals Barcelona. Beckham walked off midway through a practice match against one of the Real Madrid reserve teams and asked for treatment from the club physiotherapists. Real said that the player underwent a brief medical examination and the back pain would not prevent him taking part in tomorrow's match at the Bernabeu.

Ballack: Michael Ballack has angrily rejected suggestions that his interest in a move away from Bayern Munich is down to greed. As a free agent at the end of the season, Ballack could expect a big club in Europe to add or factor in a large signing-on fee to his salary package but he insists money is not his motivation. "It's absolutely shameless (to say that)," Ballack said in an interview with Kicker published yesterday. "I'm just trying to leave my options open." The midfielder is reportedly a target for Real Madrid, Manchester United and several Italian clubs.

Bulgaria: Mexico continued their poor form against European opposition when they lost 3-0 to Bulgaria in a friendly in Houston on Wednesday. Hristo Stoichkov's team spent most of the game soaking up Mexican pressure but were lethal on the counter-attack, scoring through Yanko Valkanov and Valeri Bojinov in the first half and Dimitar Berbatov 10 minutes from time. Mexico, who have qualified for next year's World Cup finals in Germany, have beaten Brazil and Argentina since Ricardo La Volpe took over as coach after the 2002 tournament but are winless in six outings against European sides.

Clichy: Arsenal's French defender Gael Clichy has been ruled out for three to four months by a stress fracture of his right foot. The injury is identical to the one suffered by the player he has been replacing at left- back since mid-October, Ashley Cole, the Premier League club said yesterday. Clichy's injury, suffered in France's Under-21 play-off against England last Friday, is a recurrence of an injury that ended the 20-year-old's previous season in April.

Cassano: Antonio Cassano will not make his Roma comeback against Juventus tomorrow, according to reports in Italy. Despite rumours to the contrary and Cassano's return to training with the youth team - where he has worked hard and played exceptionally well - the talented forward will remain out in the cold this weekend. The news will come as a disappointment to Roma fans, who were hoping that their skilful striker would return to face the side against whom he has already managed to score four times.

¤ Trinidad and Tobago declared a public holiday yesterday after the Caribbean island qualified for the World Cup for the first time. A second half Dennis Lawrence goal in Wednesday's play-off second leg in Bahrain saw the Soca Warriors through to a place in the finals in Germany next year. The Trinidad and Tobago Express newspaper said thousands of Trinbagonians had flooded onto the streets of the capital Port of Spain after the final whistle. The team, with the exception of Russell Latapy, were scheduled to arrive back in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday.