SPORTS

  Manchester United are close to signing Serbia midfielder Nemanja Matic from Chelsea for £40m. Matic, 28, would be United's third summer buy - following £31m defender Victor Lindelof from Benfica and £75m striker Romelu Lukaku from Everton. It will be the second time United manager Jose Mourinho has bought Matic, having signed him for Chelsea. Mourinho spent £21m in January 2014 to buy the player from Benfica for a second spell at Stamford Bridge. Matic had been valued at less than £5m in January 2011 when he left Chelsea as a makeweight in the  deal for defender David Luiz. The midfielder scored once in 35 Premier League appearances during Chelsea's title-winning 2016-17 season - but also struck spectacularly in their FA Cup semi-final victory over Tottenham in April. His exit had been expected after the Blues signed France international  Tiemoue Bakayoko,  22, from French champions Monaco in a  reported £40m deal  earlier this month. A move f...

    Katie Taylor wants "more fights" in the United States after making a winning debut                                                in New York on Saturday. The Irish lightweight, 31, stopped home favourite Jasmine Clarkson in the third round to record her sixth straight victory since turning professional . "There were some nerves," said the London 2012 Olympic champion. "I got caught with a few silly shots but overall it was good. "I hope I made some fans - I loved hearing the Irish in the crowd." Taylor dominated the contest against her 22-year-old opponent. Clarkson had no answer to Taylor's punches and, after the third round, the American's corner called a halt. Taylor is expected to challenge Uruguay's WBA world lightweight champion Cecilia Comunales later this year after stopping Nina Meinke of Germany in April's Wembley eliminator...

Legendary Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz says Adam Peaty would be taking a risk by adding the 200m breaststroke to his programme for Tokyo 2020. In 1972 Spitz won a then record of seven Olympic golds at one Games - a mark which stood until Michael Phelps won eight at  Beijing 2008 . Peaty, who defended the 50m and 100m world titles this week, has suggested he could compete in 200m from 2018. With the 50m breaststroke event not included for the 2020 Olympics, Peaty is considering adding the 200m to his race schedule in order to have the opportunity of winning two individual gold medals. "A lot of times a 100m breaststroker doesn't do well at the 200m, it can be due to training and desire, but also the order of the races at event," continued Spitz. "He has the speed, so all he needs is the conditioning to go two more laps, so the question is on Peaty - do you want to make the commitment?" "I know that as a fact because the schedule was changed for me thr...

Former world champion Dave McAuley has questioned how Carl Frampton failed to          make the weight before his fight with Andres Gutierrez was called off. The featherweight bout was cancelled after Guitierrez slipped in the shower, causing head and facial injuries. "It's not only Carl's fault, it's the trainer's fault and manager's fault," said former IBF champion McAuley. McAuley added that "people are finding it hard to swallow" the reason given for the fight being called off. Mexican Guitierrez, 24, suffered facial cuts, two broken teeth and bruising to the head in the accident on Friday - a day before the scheduled contest at the SSE Arena. Shower slip "What happened is very possible - with showers you can slip," said County Antrim man McAuley, who successfully defended the world flyweight title five times. "But the way it happened, because Carl being over weight and the fight not becoming a [world title] eli...

Mohammad Amir has always shown a knack of doing well against India since making a comeback in 2016, from a five-year ban for involving in spot-fixing. The recent occasion being the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final when he dismissed three top batsmen - Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. It helped Pakistan win the title. But cut to 2016, Rohit Sharma had a not-so-positive thing to say about the Pakistani player. After the left-arm pacer had dismissed him in a 2016 T20 Asia Cup match, Rohit said he was not a special bowler. “There is just so much hype around him, I don’t think it is right to give him too much hype after one match. He is good but he needs to prove it over and over again. Now people are comparing him to Wasim Akram and all that. He is just a normal bowler, on that given day if he is good, he is good. It is not as if he turns up and blows everyone away,” Rohit Sharma had said. “Stop talking about him already. He isn’t the only bowler, Pakistan have five other...

Double defending champions Patna Pirates began the fifth edition of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) with a 35-29 victory over hosts Telugu Titans at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday. Captain and raider Pardeep Narwal led from the front for Patna as he contributed 15 raiding points, while fellow raider Maonu Goyat chipped in with eight points. For the home camp, Rahul Chaudhari collected seven points, while Nilesh Salunke contributed six points. Defenders Bhardwaj and Vikas gave Telugu five points each. But all of the four top performers for Telugu were outshone by Pardeep, on whom Patna rode to victory. Pardeep was the main difference between the teams from the start. In the first-half, Telugu were looking to walk away with the game with a 10-7 lead following Goyat’s failed raid and Salunke’s successful raid that gave the hosts a good position in the 14th minute. Pardeep, however, kept earning points as Patna refused to surrender for an all out. Patna Pirat...