Flo goes against flow

Tore Andre Flo (right) has caused a furore in Norway. The Chelsea striker has been accused of jumping the medical queue in his homeland to have a vital operation on his ankle.

Patients who have been on a six-month waiting list were enraged because they can't see why a footballer working in London should get precedence over, say, a bricklayer working in Oslo. Norwegian newspapers, television stations and radio stations have been inundated with irate callers claiming that his status as a footballer clinched him the operation seven hours after he arrived in the hospital in Moss near the capital.

The incident reached a peak when Flo said he would pay for the £1,500 treatment - yes, it was free. His offer was declined by the Norwegian Health Service.