A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Three in running to replace Kubica
MOTOR SPORT:Brazilian Bruno Senna, Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi and Germany's Nick Heidfeld are in the frame to replace the injured Robert Kubica at Renault, the Formula One team's principal Eric Boullier said yesterday.
“We will look for Kubica’s substitute: the names considered are Senna, Liuzzi and Heidfeld,” the Frenchman told reporters after visiting the Polish driver in hospital in Italy.
“The team is close to Robert, we wait for him with open arms and we hope he can come back before the end of the season,” he added.
Kubica faces more surgery tomorrow after suffering multiple fractures in a rally crash in Italy and is likely to stay in hospital for two to three weeks.
Renault have said he will be out for at least two months but doctors have suggested it could take him a year to recover fully.
O'Rourke third in France
ATHLETICS:Derval O'Rourke continued her encouraging and relentless build-up to the European Indoor Championships next month with a very smart performance in the Palace de Calais IAAF meeting in Lievin, France last night.
The Irish record holder finished third in the final of the 60 metres hurdles in a time of 8.03 seconds, her fastest of the season, with victory going to the impressive American, Kelly Wells, in 7.85.
Ireland's soft middle wilts again
CRICKET:Ireland suffered another worrying middle-order collapse as they went down to a three-wicket defeat to Kenya in Dubai in their second warm-up game ahead of the World Cup, writes Emmet Riordan.
Openers Paul Stirling (14) and Niall O’Brien (17) failed to push on from starts before Ireland lost five wickets for just 11 runs as they were reduced to 63 for seven.
A 61-run partnership between Ed Joyce (56) and Andrew White (26) helped push the scoreboard past the 100-mark, while Nigel Jones and George Dockrell both hit 18 late on as Ireland were bowled out for 176.
A 46-run opening partnership between Seren Waters and David Obuya put the African side on track, with the classy Maurice Ouma scoring a patient 56 as they got home with 26 balls to spare.
Ireland now move on to Nagpur in India, where they will play New Zealand on Sunday in another warm-up game.
Broken finger puts an end to Morgan's World Cup
CRICKET:Dubliner Eoin Morgan has been ruled out of the Cricket World Cup due to a broken finger picked up on the recent tour to Australia.
The 24-year-old from Rush flew back to England a day earlier than the rest of the squad after being diagnosed with a fracture to the middle finger in his left hand.
But after seeing a specialist on Monday, the left-handed batsman has been now ruled out of the competition, which gets underway on February 19th.
Morgan was due to play against his former Ireland team-mates in a Group B clash in Bangalore on March 2nd. His place now goes to Essex batsman Ravi Bopara.
England team director Andy Flower said: “Eoin needs to be operated on. That’s a serious loss, but Ravi Bopara, who is an exciting young cricketer in his own right, will be joining us.”
England skipper Andrew Strauss added: “Fortunately he is a young guy with many more opportunities ahead of him.”
