Gennaro Gattuso has left AC Milan by mutual agreement after 18 months in charge of the Serie A club.

"AC Milan wishes to thank Gennaro Gattuso for his leadership during the last eighteen months. A true legend of the Rossoneri, Gennaro stepped into the role during what was a difficult period for the club and has performed admirably, securing the Club's highest League points total since 2012-13," a team statement read.

The Rossoneri just missed out on qualification for the Champions League next season, finishing a point behind Atalanta and Inter Milan, and Gattuso said during an interview on Tuesday he no longer felt he could continue in the role.

"Deciding to leave Milan is not easy," he told La Repubblica. "But it's a decision that I had to take. There was not one precise moment when I decided, it was more a combination of all these 18 months as coach of a club who, for me, will never be like any other.

"I've lived these months with great passion and they have been unforgettable. It was a decision I found hard to take, but it is one I've thought long and hard about."

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Gattuso still had two years left on his contract, but he says he would not be seeking a settlement.

"My story with Milan can never be about money," he added.

Gattuso replaced Vincenzo Montella in November 2017 and he led them into the Europa League last season, repeating the feat in this, his first full season at the club.

Milan's 68 points this term is their highest single-season haul in six years, but it was still not enough to earn them a place in the Champions League, a competition they have not appeared in since 2013, when Massimiliano Allegri was their coach.

Milan CEO Ivan Gazidis thanked the former Rossoneri midfielder for his service to the club.

"I have had the privilege to get to know Rino Gattuso over the past six months since my arrival at the club," he said in a statement. "Rino has given everything to our efforts this season, and has worked tirelessly, always taking full responsibility, putting the club above every other consideration. I want to say from the bottom of our hearts, thank you Rino."

He leaves together with sporting director Leonardo, who stepped down on Tuesday after just one year at the club.

The former Paris Saint-Germain sporting director is reported to be in disagreement with Gazidis over the future running of the club and is being linked with a return to Paris.

Lancashire 47 for 2 (Jennings 26*, Payne 1-4) trail Gloucestershire 205 (Hammond 82, Mahmood 4-48) by 158 runs

No play was possible on the second day of the Specsavers County Championship match between Gloucestershire and Lancashire at Cheltenham.

Players arrived at the College Ground to find that a fierce storm the previous night had caused some water to seep through the covers, leaving a wet area on a length at the Chapel End.

Umpires Jeff Evans and Paul Pollard delayed the start and opted to make an initial inspection at 11.30am local time. Plans for a further look an hour later were abandoned because of a heavy shower and an early lunch was taken with the intention of another inspection at 1.30pm. By then more rain had fallen and play was abandoned for the day at 1.45pm amid continued concern that the nature of the pitch had changed.

Lancashire were due to resume their first innings on 47 for 2 in reply to Gloucestershire's 205.

Saqib Mahmood claimed 4 for 48 on the opening day, including the first three wickets of Gloucestershire's innings to stem a promising start by the hosts. There were two wickets each for James Anderson and Liam Livingstone, while Miles Hammond top scored with 82.

By the time bad light brought a close three overs early, Lancashire had lost Haseeb Hameed to a run out and Jake Lehmann, bowled by David Payne during an eight-over opening spell by the left-armer, which saw him concede only four runs.

Keaton Jennings remained not out 26 and Rob Jones was unbeaten on 14.

Retired defensive end Chris Long said Tuesday that his discussion last week about using marijuana shouldn't be viewed as an admission and that the reaction he has received has reinforced that "we have a long way to go" to overcome the stigma associated with the drug.

Long, who retired from the NFL last week after 11 seasons, discussed his comments made last week to "The Dan Patrick Show" on ESPN Radio's Golic & Wingo on Tuesday.

He said Tuesday that he hates "the word admission because I don't think you're admitting to using something that harmless, personally.

"I think the reaction has been interesting because even people that support you, it just shows the stigmatization is so ingrained. A lot of people like now are tweeting at me and every tweet is like, 'Hey man, are we gonna spark one up dude?' I'm like, chill with the stereotypes.

"Marijuana is a part of people's lives. It's not their life. And obviously then you have the minority, which is less than 10 percent of the responses I've seen, which are like, 'that stuff's the devil,'" he said.

He said the buzz he received from the interview wasn't a "good thing" because stories written about his comments buried the lead.

"The lead was not that I smoked marijuana. The lead was that I talked about trying to destigmatize it. And hopefully the NFL will hear some of their players talk -- former or current, if you have the balls -- to say 'something needs to change,'" he said.

The NFL and NFLPA announced new joint initiatives last week that could conceivably lead to a change in the league's attitude toward marijuana as a pain management treatment. A joint pain management committee will conduct research into pain management and alternative therapies, which could lead the league down previously unexplored roads.

"I think Roger (Goodell) is a guy who's trying to get out in front of things and hopefully this is no exception," Long said. "We're dealing with a generational stigma so you're used to your fans being old-guard people who bought into that stigma. I know some people struggle with it because marijuana, all the stereotypes are 'lazy, deviant people only smoke marijuana.' Well, if NFL players who are active in their community, are hard-working, they go absolutely nuts on Sunday and they play the game with violence and energy for three hours, that kind of challenges your stereotype. And it challenges the stereotype of football.

"I think at the end of the day, I would hope that they would consider lifting that kind of arbitrary ban. You've got one test a year; if you get tested more than that it's because you failed the test."

Long emphasized that he's not advocating marijuana just for pain management, saying: "Some guys want to get high. And what's worse: downing a six-pack of beer or smoking a joint?

"You get multifaceted benefits. If you have trouble sleeping, there's a lot of guys that need help sleeping. It's hard to turn your brain off after a 12- to 14-hour day of meetings and practice and abuse on your body and stress. Try coming home from a Sunday night game at 3 in the morning and not sleeping until the sun comes up," he said.

As for deciding to end his NFL career, Long said it "came down to deciding between staying in Philly in a situation that wasn't perfect -- and they were real upfront with me -- or starting over somewhere else." He said he considered Philadelphia "a second home."

"I joked that I could go play somewhere else and get carted off Week 3 and nobody cares. At least in Philly they'd give me a standing ovation or something. That's kind of the things that creep into your head," he said.

MINNEAPOLIS _ The Minnesota Twins have placed right-handed starter Michael Pineda on the 10-day injured list with right knee tendinitis and promoted Devin Smeltzer to take his place in the rotation.

The move was made Tuesday, with Smeltzer scheduled to make his major league debut against the Milwaukee Brewers.

The 23-year-old Smeltzer was acquired last season from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the trade for second baseman Brian Dozier. Smeltzer, a left-hander with a funky delivery, has a 1.15 ERA in nine starts this year between Double-A and Triple-A.

Pineda struck out six Brewers in six innings on Monday night. He allowed three runs and three hits without a walk. There was no sign of injury during or after the game.

Pineda, 4-3 with a 5.32 ERA in 11 starts this season, underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017 and also suffered a meniscus tear in his right knee last August that prevented him from returning last season.

Martin Perez, originally slated to start Tuesday, had his turn pushed back.

Major League Baseball's new format to elect All-Star starters is being put into place starting with the "primary" vote Tuesday, it was announced.

Voting begins Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET with a "primary" phase that includes a representative from each team at every position, including designated hitter in the American League. Primary voting will end at 4 p.m. ET on June 21, and the players with the three highest vote totals at each position will be announced that night on MLB Network.

The secondary phase, called "The Starters Election," will begin at noon ET five days later and last for 28 hours. The results, which will be reset from the primary, will choose catchers, four infield positions and three outfielders for each league and be announced on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET on June 27.

The remainder of the 23 players for the American League and 24 for the National League, including all pitchers, will be selected by player vote as well as AL manager Alex Cora of the Boston Red Sox and NL manager Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The full rosters will be announced June 30 at 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

MLB is partnering with Google in the online-only voting system. Searching "MLB Vote" on Google will take fans to the ballot, which also can be cast via MLB.com and multiple MLB mobile apps.

The All-Star Game is scheduled to be played at Progressive Field in Cleveland on July 9.

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Odubel Herrera was arrested on a charge of simple assault following a domestic incident in Atlantic City on Monday night.

Herrera has been placed on administrative leave by Major League Baseball per the league's domestic violence policy, sources confirmed to ESPN amid multiple reports. He'll be inactive for up to seven days while MLB investigates the alleged incident.

The Atlantic City Police Department said in a statement posted on Facebook that officers responded to the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino at 8:33 p.m. ET on Monday after a report of domestic violence was made. Officers found Herrera's 20-year-old girlfriend with "visible signs of injury to her arms and neck that was sustained after being assaulted by her boyfriend."

The woman refused medical attention and Herrera was located in his hotel room and arrested without incident and released.

The 27-year-old Herrera, who is the Phillies' starting center fielder, is hitting .222 with a home run and 16 RBIs this season.

World number nine Elina Svitolina, who has won 13 singles titles on the WTA Tour, will be writing columns for the BBC Sport website during the French Open, which runs from 26 May to 9 June.

The Ukrainian, seeded ninth, is hoping for a successful run in Paris, having become known as one of the WTA's leading players on clay, twice reaching the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.

The 24-year-old, who was at a career-high ranking of three last year, has struggled with a knee injury in recent months, but earned her first win of the clay-court season by beating seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams 6-4 6-4 in the opening round.

Beating Venus Williams in straight sets was a good sign that I'm mentally strong enough to overcome the challenges I've been facing this year.

Playing one of the all-time greats in the first round after losing my past four matches was mentally very tough and my main emotion after winning was happiness.

But after my injury troubles, and not winning a match in Madrid or Rome, I was also relieved to get the victory.

On the one hand, it can be good to have a tough opponent like Venus at the beginning of the draw because it puts you straight into 'tournament mode'.

But on the other hand it is also a little draining. Your mind has to be sharper than perhaps it usually has to be in the opening round.

Against such a great champion, I had to step up my game, be focused from the very beginning and take my chances.

As I said before the tournament, I don't have any expectations about how far I can go at Roland Garros, so now I just want to be ready for the second round and compete well.

I'm happy I haven't lost my confidence with that run of losses - when things aren't going well it has to be part of your personality and mindset as a tennis player that you don't lose confidence.

But I was pleased to have two days off before I play in the second round on Wednesday. Now I have time to recover mentally.

'The small details matter when fighting injury'

As well as resting mentally, the two days off will be important for my knee's recovery. I didn't feel any pain on Sunday but we try to take one day at a time.

The small details really matter, especially with injury when you are playing such a big event - with this level of pressure, you can snap any time.

We will do recovery and treatments - we have a machine that has the same effect on an injury as an ice bath or cryotherapy but that uses oxygen. It looks like a spray but is actually oxygen with ice effect.

So you 'spray' this to the place it hurts and the body reacts like it is a burn. So the blood starts to move quickly and the recovery speeds up.

This type of stuff, along with lots of massage and exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee, is very important for recovery.

I will watch my boyfriend Gael Monfils' match on Tuesday, of course - then I will be ready and fresh for Wednesday.

'Important to share your off-court life with fans'

As well as our Instagram account, Gael and I had plans for a behind-the-scenes documentary.

I think it's important to share your lives with fans, and there aren't many documentaries made about life off the court. I think it will help aspiring tennis players growing up to see what they will have to deal with in the future.

People see what's going on when you're playing a match but don't see what's going on behind the scenes, not only in the good moments but also the tough ones.

Anyway, we did a little bit of filming but then had to stop because there were issues about access at some tournaments. The prices for filming were super high - we would have spent almost all our prize money on it!

So we've stopped filming for a while and we will see how it goes - maybe we'll keep the footage and try to start the documentary again in the future.

Playing childhood friend at a Slam is 'amazing'

On Wednesday I will play Kateryna Kozlova, another Ukrainian, in the second round.

I've known Kateryna since we were about eight. She was born in a city close to my own, and is only seven months older than me, so we grew up playing against each other in junior tournaments.

We were very good friends and just having fun - that's all it was about at that age. We didn't really talk too much about the future.

We have played each other many, many times but never on the WTA Tour so it's amazing we're now here in a Grand Slam facing each other.

But although we are still friends, and talk a little bit from time to time, I have my team around me and she has her team so it is very tough to connect all the time.

It is very rare to maintain strong friendships on tour like normal girls. I mean, I speak with all the girls and we're very friendly, but is tough to keep the same relationship with friends as you had before because you are all so busy travelling and competing.

But it is great to be playing an old friend - and it is great for Ukrainian tennis to know there will definitely be someone from Ukraine in the third round!

Elina Svitolina was speaking to BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko at Roland Garros.