Higuain: Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain will undergo surgery to fix a slipped disc that has sidelined him since November in the United States next week. The 23-year-old Argentine international will be operated on at Chicago’s Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine on Tuesday, it said in a statement.

Kucka: Slovak midfielder Juraj Kucka signed a four and a half year contract with Serie A side Genoa yesterday, his current team Sparta Prague said on its website. The 23-year-old Kucka has played 14 games for Slovakia, including three at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa where his team reached the second round after stunning defending champions Italy in the group stage. Kucka is leaving defending Czech champions Sparta after two years.

Klose: Germany and Bayern Munich striker Miroslav Klose said yesterday he is hoping the Bundesliga champions will extend his contract but did not rule out a move abroad to further his experience. The Polish-born star, 32, whose contract with Bayern runs out at the end of the season, told sport magazine Kicker: “My first point of contact is Bayern Munich. But I am open to anything and could seriously imagine a move within the Bundesliga or overseas,” he said.

Brown: Former Hull boss Phil Brown was appointed as the new manager of Championship strugglers Preston North End yesterday. Brown, out of work since leaving Hull in 2010, replaced Darren Ferguson, son of Manchester United manager Sir Alex, who was sacked last week after less than a year in charge.

Podolski: Germany international striker Lukas Podolski was named the new captain of struggling Bundesliga side Cologne yesterday, succeeding defender Youssef Moha-mad. “It’s a great honour for me to become captain and it’s an enormous challenge,” said the 25-year-old, after being handed the armband at his childhood club by coach Frank Schaefer.

Cricket: England batsman Paul Collingwood said yesterday he will retire from Test cricket after the final Sydney Ashes Test against Australia. The England and Wales Cricket Board said Collingwood, 34, would remain as England’s Twenty20 captain and play for England’s one-day team. Collingwood’s announcement comes in the midst of a poor Ashes series, scoring just 83 runs from six innings at the number five batting position.

Tennis: Disgraced US tennis player Wayne Odesnik will play next week in his first event since completing a one-year doping ban after earning a wild-card spot in the Plantation Open with a victory on Wednesday. The 25-year-old South African-born left-hander defeated Haiti’s Olivier Sajous, ranked 563rd in the world, to book a berth in the 10,000-dollar US Tennis Association Pro Circuit clay-court tournament in Florida. Odesnik was arrested last January in Brisbane with eight vials of human growth hormone.

Golf: Former Asian Tour number one Jeev Milkha Singh of India has won his race to be fit for the Royal Trophy, organisers announced yesterday. Singh, who won 1½ points last year, has been struggling with a back problem and Thailand’s Prayad Marksaeng was put on standby. The Indian competed in the Pro-Am at Black Mountain Golf Club yesterday and afterwards said he was ready to play for Asia against defending champions Europe in the annual tournament.

Dakar Rally: Portuguese motorcyclist Paulo Goncalves, riding a BMW, won the fifth stage of the Dakar Rally yesterday after a 423km special stage from Calama to Iquique with Chilian Aprilia rider Francisco Lopez taking second. Goncalves finished 2min 18sec ahead of Lopez, and 2min 19sec in front of Dutchman Frans Verhoeven on another BMW. Overall leader Marc Coma of Spain was fourth on a KTM, just ahead of main rival and defending champion Cyril Despres of France who was 12sec behind the Spaniard.