‘This wasn’t about money, this was a life at stake’: the world of a sports lawyer

Simon Leaf was sitting in the doctor’s office next to a footballer receiving news that would change the player’s life. The footballer knew something wasn’t quite right and medical tests had been ordered. This was not long after Fabrice Muamba had been saved by the speed of paramedics after having a cardiac arrest on the pitch at White Hart Lane, Leaf recalls, so tensions were heightened.As the player’s lawyer, Leaf was asked to attend when the worst was confirmed and the consultant revealed the player had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy – the same condition as Muamba, where the heart muscles thicken and blood is pumped less efficiently.“To get the results with him, to talk him through his options, to try to guide him through that process was a truly humbling experience,” Leaf says

Why Australia will win v why England can win: two Guardian cricket writers make their Ashes cases

Even the greats of the Ashes have been weighed down by 143 years of shared history, tradition and controversy. For keen observers of Australia and England, Ashes anxiety can cloud judgments, hopes and dreams. Personally, a heart still bearing the scars from more than a decade spent living behind enemy lines as a once all-conquering Australia failed to tie – let alone win – an Ashes series in England, now insists on managing expectations. But as the ICC’s top two-ranked men’s Test teams prepare for a contest set to be shaped as much by endurance as execution, the head is ready to rule with a quiet confidence that Australia will triumph in a fourth straight Ashes as hosts.The current Australia outfit falls short of the best the nation has produced just in this century

A trooper’s shove showed stardom doesn’t protect Black athletes from police | Etan Thomas

It was 1996, my first day stepping foot on Syracuse University’s campus. I saw a big student protest was taking place so, with my freshman’s inquisitive mind, I ventured over to see what was going on.I listened to a passionate sista named Kathy Ade, the president of Syracuse’s student African-American Society. She stood there with her Bantu knots and a megaphone addressing the crowd, discussing the fact that campus security was now going to be able to carry pepper spray. In the 90s – which my daughter Baby Sierra calls “the 1900s,” just to keep me humble – campus security carrying pepper spray was a big deal

The Breakdown | Could new Nations Championship transform Test rugby? The jury is out

There is logic to the fresh international format, due to launch next year, but glaring issues and logistical challenges tooOK, let’s just pick the ball up and run with it for a little while. A reimagined global Test landscape pitching the northern hemisphere against the south commencing next July. Twelve men’s national sides playing six games each with a final playoff weekend. Concluding with one champion team hoisting a shiny trophy aloft in front of, hopefully, a worldwide television audience of millions.On paper – and years of scribbling on the backs of envelopes have gone into this – there is some logic to it

Mark Wood declared fit for first Ashes Test as England seamers ‘lick their lips’ at surface

Mark Wood is fully fit and available for selection in the first Ashes Test on Friday, having come through an extended spell of bowling at full pace in the Perth Stadium nets without any problems – before emerging with his pads on to have a bat minutes later – as England’s seamers found conditions at the ground so good they were “licking their lips”.Wood’s left leg was heavily strapped throughout, as it has been since he returned after surgery to that knee in March, but the tightness in his hamstring that concerned him during the first day of England’s warm-up against the Lions at Lilac Hill last week has dissipated. It is believed that the scan he had last Friday was primarily intended to alleviate the player’s fitness worries, with the team’s medical staff never hugely concerned.Jamie Smith was one of the batters who faced Wood in the nets on Tuesday. “He was absolutely rapid today, I can tell you that first-hand,” he said

The Luka Era begins: inside the transformation powering the post-LeBron Lakers

Shipped out of Dallas and dropped into Hollywood, Dončić has responded with a leaner body, a louder voice and a growing command of the Lakers’ post-LeBron futureIt’s been nine and a half months since the trade that rocked the sports world was broken via a Shams Charania tweet. It was such a shock that the majority of his followers assumed he’d been hacked. Fresh off of a trip to the NBA finals, the young Slovenian superstar Luka Dončić was shipped off in the middle of the night to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, and the NBA as we know it was changed for ever. The fallout from one of the most shocking trades in sports history is still evolving: disgraced Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, who spearheaded the transaction, was let go by the team last week, in a move Mavericks fans have been loudly clamoring for since news broke that their homegrown franchise player was being abruptly cast out to sea. But on the other side of the coin was a mixed blessing and a new beginning: Dončić, who had imagined spending his entire career in Dallas like his mentor Dirk Nowitzki, suddenly found himself recast as the face of the NBA’s most famous franchise under the bright lights of Hollywood

‘A drug that’s very safe and healthy‘: what ultrarunners can teach us about life | Sean Ingle

Imagine being able to run a marathon in three hours and 17 minutes. That is certainly no mean feat. But now think about trying to sustain that same pace for another nine hours. To most of us, the idea veers somewhere between the fantastical and the insane. Yet that is what Caitriona Jennings, a 45-year-old ultrarunner from Donegal, did this month when breaking the women’s world record for 100 miles

Eli Katoa ruled out of entire 2026 NRL season after head impacts and brain surgery

Melbourne Storm backrower Eli Katoa has been ruled out for the entire 2026 season as he recovers at home in Victoria, having returned from a prolonged stay in Auckland following brain surgery.The 25-year-old suffered three head injuries in one afternoon while playing for Tonga in a Pacific Championship match against New Zealand and suffered seizures while on the sideline, triggering emergency medical attention.A procedure to relieve bleeding on the brain left Katoa in hospital and initially unable to travel back to Melbourne.The Storm revealed on Tuesday that Katoa had finally returned home and was recovering, having also briefly visited a Melbourne hospital.“Eli’s health and wellbeing remain our number one priority,” Storm chief executive Justin Rodski said

NRL joins AFL in identifying players it suspects of drug use for testing target ‘list’

The NRL’s in-house spies are collecting intelligence on players they suspect are using drugs, and have sent a list of athletes to Sport Integrity Australia they believe should be targeted for testing.It is a practice also used by the AFL, but with uncertain benefits. Of the 51 names on a list provided by the AFL – as revealed by the Australian National Audit Office in March – just one has returned an adverse analytical finding.The revelations shed light on the practice within the major sporting codes, which are paying the independent integrity agency to collect samples, while also advising on players they suspect are breaching anti-doping rules – a relationship that has drawn concern from federal MPs.Information provided by SIA to a parliamentary inquiry this week confirmed the NRL provides a testing target “list” of names, while other sports also co-operate in a more ad-hoc fashion