Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele will be out of action until 2020, which will rule him out of El Clasico, sources have told ESPN FC.

Dembele, 22, injured his thigh in Wednesday's Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund after 25 minutes, and was replaced by Antoine Griezmann.

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Sources have told ESPN FC there is major concern at Barca about Dembele's repeated muscle problems after the forward suffered his ninth injury since joining the club.

Following two days of tests, Barca have still not released a statement on the severity of Dembele's latest injury. However, sources have indicated that he will be out of action until 2020, which would rule him out of league games against Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, among others.

The sources add that the club are "worried" about the frequency of Dembele's fitness issues and also about how he deals with this latest setback mentally.

He was visibly affected when he exited the game against Dortmund, crying as he headed down the tunnel. The club feel he could be suffering from emotional stress following so many injuries, which as a result affects his muscles. Given the explosiveness and pace with which he plays, that could be one explanation for such frequent injuries.

After the Dortmund game, teammate Luis Suarez called for the club "to find a solution" to the problems and Barca are now working closely with his agent, Moussa Sissoko, to heed that advice.

The Spanish champions paid an initial fee of €105 million to sign him from Dortmund in 2017 after Neymar moved to Paris Saint-Germain. Since then, he has missed eight-and-a-half months of football and 55 games through various injuries.

He has already sat out six matches due to two different injuries this season. The first injury came against Athletic Bilbao in August. Dembele felt something during the match but went against the medical team's advice to undergo tests, believing it to be nothing serious. He returned to training three days later after spending the weekend in France to discover he would be out for five weeks.

However, while that irked some at the club, Dembele's professionalism has greatly improved. In the past he has been heavily fined for being late for training sessions, team meetings and matches. Defender Gerard Pique warned him that he must learn "football lasts for 24 hours of the day" to succeed among the elite.

Sources say those discipline problems have been left behind, though, and he's living a life much more fitting of a top-level footballer. It's for that reason there's so much concern that he's still continuing to pick up injuries.

"His attitude has been really positive and he's one of the most loved players in the squad," a source inside the dressing room told ESPN FC. "He's a joker, he's happy and we hope this injury doesn't set him back."

Liverpool midfielder Fabinho suffered an ankle ligament injury in Wednesday's Champions League draw with Napoli and will be out of action until the New Year, the Premier League club said on Friday.

Fabinho was injured in a collision with Napoli winger Hirving Lozano and the midfielder limped down the tunnel in the 19th minute as Klopp took off the Brazilian and replaced him with Georginio Wijnaldum.

"Further assessment on the injury has discovered Fabinho will be out of action until the New Year," the club said in a statement.

"The Brazilian will begin a rehabilitation programme with the Reds' medical team at Melwood as he works his way back to full fitness."

The injury comes at a crucial time for league leaders Liverpool who are set to play eight fixtures in all competitions between now and the end of December, including a trip to Qatar for the Club World Cup.

The defending European champions are also yet to seal progress to the Champions League knockout stages, with one final away game at Salzburg next month.

Australia 1 for 302 (Warner 166*, Labuschagne 126*) v Pakistan

Even by the miserable standards of the past quarter century, this was a wretched day for Pakistan down under. Centuries from the resurgent David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne, a man who's batsmanship has scaled heights he never appeared equipped for, had almost certainly already batted Pakistan out of the game on a rain-curtailed opening day.

Unbroken on 294, it was the highest partnership in day-night Tests, setting a record Australia will look to extend on the second afternoon when the pair return to pile more misery on their dispirited visitors. By the end of the day, Australia had amassed 1 for 302 at over four runs per over, and Pakistan were already down to the part-time spin of Iftikhar Ahmed and Azhar Ali to protect an ineffectual three-man pace attack.

Warner's was the performance of the day, the memories of that torrid Ashes summer well and truly distant now. Pakistan, for a change, decided to come around the wicket to him with the new ball at last, and in Mohammad Abbas, they had someone with the ability to make sure the ball held its line outside the left-hander's off stump. He looked sharp for the first three overs, but Warner's intensity was unmatched, and once he had timed his first couple of drives either side of the wicket, he appeared as if carrying on from his 154 in Brisbane.

And yet, the mood music around the start of play was completely different to Brisbane, where Pakistan had never looked like taking 20 wickets. Under overcast skies, Tim Paine chose, rather bravely, to have a bat, with the start delayed by rain. The clouds hovered above as Shaheen Afridi - Pakistan's best bowler by a stretch - troubled Joe Burns outside off stump, needing just nine balls to draw the edge and take the wicket.

It seemed a hazy dream by the end of the day, but Labuschagne, who faced 205 deliveries by the end of the day, was a whisker away from making his way back after just one. A huge appeal ensued after his first ball whizzed past his bat, a wooden sound audible as they crossed paths. Pakistan, wisely, chose not to review; the bat had hit the ground.

With two batsmen in form and the pink ball giving up swing somewhat earlier than Pakistan would have hoped, the partnership began to flow. It wasn't helped by Pakistan's ordinariness with the ball. Even Abbas wasn't able to target the stumps which is when he's at his best; his entire 18-over workload saw just two deliveries projected to disturb the timber. Muhammad Musa was quick but much too predictable with his length, far too eager to bang the ball in short. It allowed Warner to carve him through the offside repeatedly, and if Plan B had been discussed in the changing rooms beforehand, that's where it stayed.

Labuschagne averaged 34 in first-class cricket before he made his Test debut but, of late, he's batted like a Steven Smith clone - not surprising given the amount of time he has spent with him. Surviving an initial Afridi spell fraught with danger was as much a test of maturity as batting skill; for the first couple of hours he was out there, runs were hard to come by. He would battle, refusing to give his wicket away by forcing the issue, biding his time until he found his touch. His first 96 deliveries yielded just 37 runs but by the end his strike rate was up to 62.

Rain tore out a large chunk of the middle session, but once the pair settled after the break, it looked like carelessness would be the only thing that would break the partnership. The pressure began to lift, the field began to spread, the bowlers began to tire, and Ahmed and Azhar began to warm up. The pair brought up their half-centuries, then their hundreds. Warner would ease to 150 with consecutive boundaries off Yasir Shah, who had as horrific a time as he did last time Pakistan toured, going at 6.21. Afridi was the only bowler who threatened on occasions every time he was brought back on, but it never really appeared enough to draw another wicket.

Pakistan's thoughts, meanwhile, may already have turned to the heavens, and whether they can unleash enough rain to prevent them heading back from Australia on the back of a fifth consecutive clean sweep.

Karnataka 195 for 2 (Padikkal 87, Rahul 66, Agarwal 30*) beat Haryana 194 for 8 (Rana 61, Bishnoi 55, Patel 34, Tewatia 32, Mithun 5-39, Gopal 2-23) by eight wickets

It was a six fest at Surat's Lalabhai Contractor Stadium as a sizeable crowd was treated to some outstanding short-format hitting from KL Rahul and Devdutt Padikkal to start with, and then by Mayank Agarwal. But that Karnataka were chasing 195 on a belter of a pitch and not something in the region of 210 was down to a very special performance from Abhimanyu Mithun, who made history by picking up five wickets, including four off the first four deliveries, in the final over of the Haryana innings.

When Mithun was handed the ball for the final over, Himanshu Rana was on 61 from 33 balls, Rahul Tewatia was on 32 from 19, and Haryana 192 for 3. Ball one: Rana holes out to Agarwal at cow corner. Second ball: Tewatia slogs one to Karun Nair at long-on. Third ball: Sumit Kumar scoop-pulls a slower one to Rohan Kadam at short fine-leg. Hat-trick! Fourth ball: Amit Mishra hits to K Gowtham in the covers. Double hat-trick! This is followed by a wide and a single, taking Haryana to 194. Then, sixth ball: Jayant Yadav moves outside the off stump and guides it straight to Rahul behind the stumps. Five in an over!

Smiles, whoops of joy, high-fives - the momentum was certainly with Karnataka at the break.

"I kept wickets, so I knew they were 10-15 runs short," Rahul told Star Sports after the game. "That was the chat at the halfway mark. To chase this down in 15 overs tells you everything about the pitch. We knew if we got a good start, we had the batting to chase this down."

That's what happened. Once they came out to bat, Rahul and Padikkal pressed home the advantage ruthlessly.

ALSO READ: Fitness revolution helps Rohan Kadam chart a new course

To be fair, Harshal Patel started well, conceding just one run in the first over of the chase. But Padikkal hit an inside-out drive over the off side and then a delicate flick for fours in the second over, bowled by Ashish Hooda, and Karnataka were on their way. Patel was taken for 16 runs in the third, Hooda then gave away 23 in the next, and the Haryana fielders were mostly spotted retrieving the ball as the Powerplay yielded 82 runs.

With that sort of platform, there was no real threat of Karnataka losing, not with Agarwal, Nair, Manish Pandey and Kadam to follow, and the question really was about how soon they would cross the line. It took them 15 overs.

Rahul got to his half-century in the seventh over, reaching the milestone off 21 balls. He was dismissed not long after, though, mistiming a hoick off a Yadav slower delivery to long-on a ball after slamming yet another maximum, but his 31-ball 66 was an outstanding innings, the four fours and six sixes keeping the crowd entertained.

Not that Padikkal wasn't turning it on at the other end. He was on 56 off 26 balls when Rahul fell, and ensured the big hits kept coming even as Agarwal walked in and hit Mishra for back-to-back sixes down the ground in the 11th over. With Padikkal in sight of a century, Agarwal did look like he was putting the big hits away, and the youngster obliged with a flurry of fours and sixes, taking his tally up to 11 fours and four sixes. But, with both his century and the target just 13 runs away, a flick off Patel refused to go high enough or long enough, and landed in Chaitanya Bishnoi's hands at deep midwicket.

Padikkal's 87 came from 42 balls, and took his tally for the tournament up to 548, comfortably ahead of second-placed Ruturaj Gaikwad's 419. With this coming close on the heels of the 19-year-old opener's chart-topping 609 runs from the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy, it's been quite the season for Padikkal.

It's also been quite the season for Mithun, the seasoned pro, who recorded the first instance of a bowler picking up five wickets in an over in a T20 game. Not to forget, the double hat-trick came just over a month after he picked up a hat-trick in the final of the Hazare trophy, as Karnataka beat Tamil Nadu.

Before Mithun's heroics, however, it did look like Haryana meant business. In the first ten overs, they had 92 for 2 on the board. The start was frenetic, with Bishnoi and Patel putting on 67 for the first wicket by the seventh over before Patel, the medium-pacer who has enjoyed a good time as an opener this season, fell for a 20-ball 34. Shivam Chauhan didn't last long either, Shreyas Gopal accounting for both of them, but Rana and Bishnoi kept the tempo up with some lusty hitting.

After Bishnoi fell, run out for a 35-ball 55, having been sent back by Rana when trying to steal a quick single to Pandey, Tewatia performed his role well and it was all going swimmingly for Haryana till the last over. But Rana first, for a 34-ball 61, and Tewatia next, for 32 off 20 balls, were sent back going for big hits by Mithun in that remarkable final over, and the game slipped away from Haryana rather quickly.

We're past Thanksgiving now, or at least the main event, though lots of you surely have fridges full of leftovers to dispatch. Football takes center stage during this particular holiday, which pains me to admit but what can you do? It's not like baseball is riding a tidal wave of happy PR at the moment.

In our sport, there has been some movement on the free-agent market. The White Sox made a splash last week by signing the best available catcher in Yasmani Grandal. The Braves jumped into the leftover backstop market to nab Travis d'Arnaud to assume co-catching duties with Tyler Flowers, a spot opened up by Brian McCann's retirement. The Braves also grabbed the top available reliever in all-purpose lefty Will Smith.

Not bad, considering the glacial pace of recent Hot Stove seasons. Those three players are the best free agents to change teams. Other solid veterans have re-upped with their old teams, a group that includes Flowers, Nick Markakis, Chris Martin and Darren O'Day -- all with the proactive Braves -- along with Jose Abreu (White Sox) and Adam Wainwright (Cardinals). Jake Odorizzi accepted the qualifying offer proffered by the Twins, while J.D. Martinez declined to option out of his Red Sox contract.

That's pretty much your free-agent update. Of Keith Law's Top 50 free agents, 43 remain unaccounted for, including the top seven. Opportunity abounds!

We tend to look at free agency through the prism of rankings, such as Keith's list. If our team needs a pitcher, we go to the rankings, skim down to the best available guy, and decide that's who our hard-working local GM must sign. It's a reasonable attitude.

However, it's not the only way to look at things. While top-line evaluations of available talent are the best guides to free agency, there is also the question of fit. What are the categories in which a team's prospective roster is deficient? And which players are most apt to shore up those specific categories? Players often fit better on some teams than others in a way not reflected in ordinal rankings.

Looking at the free-agent pool through the fit lens adds nuance to tracking the offseason. It becomes more than a matter of crossing names off the ranking list and shines a light on some names that aren't dominating the rumor mill. The best part from the team perspective is that signing most of these players won't break your bank.

Let's wade into the remaining free-agent pool with this in mind by asking, and answering, a few strategic game-situation and roster-building questions.

Sponsored post: Runner takes on major marathons for her friend Buks Lubbe following his spinal cord injury

Anita Burger dedicated running her first ever race, the 2019 Berlin Marathon, to her friend Johann ‘Buks’ Lubbe following his spinal cord injury.

“During 2003 in the mountains of Montague, South Africa, Buks was involved in a freak 4×4 accident that left him paralysed from the waist down (a T10 spinal cord injury),” Anita explains. “At the time he was 31 years old and extremely active, playing provincial cricket and rugby and loved sports, basically anything to do with physical activities.

“In a moment, the accident changed the world as he knew it; in fact it ceased to exist. BUT through the grace of God, Buks managed to open up other doors. He once again got involved in cycling and marathons. He also got married during this time and has three beautiful step children.

“He believes that science and research into finding a cure for the central nervous system to heal itself is around the corner. There is enough evidence to prove that we are progressing, but the progress is limited due to lack of funding. He remains positive that one day we will be able to assist spinal cord injuries to a full recovery, until such time, he does what is possible and lives life to the fullest. I salute you, Buks.”

Anita worked hard preparing for the Berlin Marathon and found that the fundraising was the toughest part of her event experience. She was fundraising for Spinal Research because one day their work will help Buks regain movement and function below the site of his injury. Anita was determined to succeed because of what it means for Buks and other with a spinal cord injury. She is now signing up to do the New York City Marathon to again support Spinal Research.

Spinal Research is the UK’s leading charity funding medical research into treatments for the devastating, and life-changing, effects of spinal cord injury on daily living such as breathing, hand movement, sexual function, and bladder and bowel control.

If you’d like to follow in Anita’s footsteps and run the Berlin Marathon or join her in running the New York City Marathon, visit the charity’s website for more information or get in touch with the events team.

spinal-research.org/berlin-marathon
spinal-research.org/new-york-marathon

[email protected]
020 7653 8935

Click here to view the Spinal Research listing on our ‘run for charity’ page.

Briton ran 26.2 miles in every single country, overcoming muggings, illness and mental struggles to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK

Marathon running is not without its challenges but Nick Butter took things to the extreme by overcoming muggings, being hit by a car, being shot at and a Congo River crossing in his bid to become the first person to complete the iconic distance in every country in the world.

The Briton ran the 26.2-mile event in 196 different countries in 674 days having been inspired to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK after meeting Kevin Webber, who had been terminally diagnosed with the disease, at the Marathon des Sables in 2016.

After two years of planning, Butter left London in January last year, with his marathon mission starting in Toronto, Canada, and ending in Athens in Greece earlier this month.

While it is a world first, Butter is also applying for a Guinness world record for ‘the fastest time to run a marathon distance in all sovereign states as identified by the UN’. The 196 figure comprises the 193 member states of the United Nations, plus three others not currently officially recognised.

So far, donations to his fundraising page at justgiving.com have totalled more than £118,500.

Butter used to run as a break from his job in finance but something resonated when Webber (pictured with Butter above, right) told him most people were just ‘existing’ instead of going out and making their dreams reality.

“As soon as I realised it (running a marathon in every country) had never been done, a switch had been flicked and I was going to do it,” says Butter. “It was just a matter of understanding how and that took two years, just to get to the start line.”

During the trip, the 30-year-old faced many difficult environments including war zones and areas of political unrest, plus extreme climates such as the Sahara Desert and Antarctica.

One of his biggest challenges was crossing the Congo River.

“I was terrified to cross that,” he says. “I could have flown but it seemed ridiculous because it’s like 300 metres. I did cross successfully but there were lots of bribes I had to pay.”

He also understandably had to deal with physical and mental struggles.

“The physical side was mostly illness,” says Butter, whose marathon PB is 2:55. “My legs were pretty much stable and I had to occasionally do some icing to them.

“But the illnesses – I did 22 marathons with food poisoning, I ran in Bangladesh in 44C with something like nearly 90% humidity and I had a kidney infection. Every step was horrible, I was throwing up every mile or so.

“The mental toll is interesting,” he adds. “I wasn’t expecting it to be as tough as it was. I’m quite mentally strong but it was the relentlessness of not being able to hit pause. It’s almost the feeling of being on a spinning roundabout and being told you can’t get off for two years.

“It was stressful. Going into Syria and Yemen and Libya and Iran, I was scared, sometimes physically shaking, because I was thinking not only do I not want to get shot, kidnapped or killed but I actually need to run this marathon today because otherwise I won’t get to the finish line in time.”

His next marathon effort will be the school and theatre tour he has planned, as he travels the UK and Europe to share his story.

“This tour is something I’m really passionate about now,” he says, “because there’s no point doing this thing if we’re not going to raise the money and if we’re not going to tell people, especially young people, about it. I hope that other people will see that it’s a great thing, to go and do something that scares you and give it a go.”

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has said he can maintain his level until the age of 50 if he finds the right project and added he sees AC Milan as his "second home" amid speculation he could return to Serie A.

The former Sweden international has ended his two-year spell with LA Galaxy and has since been announced as part-owner of Hammarby but sources have told ESPN FC a playing role has not yet been ruled out.

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Ibrahimovic, 38, spent two seasons at Milan and won a league title in 2011, before leaving for Paris Saint-Germain a year later.

"Milan is my second home," Ibrahimovic told Gazzetta dello Sport. "Milan is not my second city, it's my second home. I have some wonderful memories."

He added: "If there is a project which stimulates me, I could play at the same level until I'm 50 years old."

Ibrahimovic often criticised Major League Soccer during this time at LA Galaxy but said he enjoyed his time in the U.S.

And, in typical fashion, he compared himself to Giuseppe Garibaldi, the man who helped unify Italy and was known as the "Hero of Two Worlds" for his military exploits in Europe and South America.

"I have just finished my experience in Los Angeles," he said. "It was fantastic -- now there are two of us who are heroes of two worlds: me and Giuseppe Garibaldi."

Meanwhile, Ibrahimovic has also been linked with Serie A club Bologna and, asked about manager Sinisa Mihajlovic, said: "Sinisa is a unique person."

Ibrahimovic has also been linked with Serie A club Bologna and asked about whether the ex-Manchester United forward could join Bologna in his prematch news conference, Mihajlovic said: "There's a great rapport between us, we spoke a month ago and the last time 10 days ago.

"There is the possibility that he comes, it seemed to me that he was interested in my offer. Around Dec. 10 he will make a definite decision.

"Right now everything is on stand-by. I'm perfectly aware that he has other offers from important clubs. If he does comes, he is doing it for me."

It got a lot of attention - enough for the MCC to reportedly consider a review - in the World Cup final but it turns out the umpires might have repeated their mistake with awarding overthrow runs for much less dramatic consequences during the Adelaide Test. In the 24th over of Australia's innings, David Warner tucked a ball towards long leg and rushed off for a second. The throw from Shaheen Afridi was wayward and went for four overthrows. Warner was awarded six runs, much like Ben Stokes was in the World Cup final, and brought up his half-century.

Upon review of footage in the World Cup final, it was clear that the throw had left the fielder's hand before the batsmen had crossed each while taking the second run. In such cases, according to the MCC laws, only five runs should be awarded to the batting team. In the end, England tied the final with New Zealand, and then also the Super Over and won the World Cup on a boundary countback.

This one run is unlikely to be that consequential in the Adelaide Test but footage reviewed by ESPNcricinfo again confirmed the ball had left Afridi's hand well before Warner and Marnus Labuschagne had crossed each other. This is what Law 19.8, which deals with overthrows or a wilful act of a fielder.

"If the boundary results from an overthrow or from the wilful act of a fielder, the runs scored shall be any runs for penalties awarded to either side and the allowance for the boundary and the runs completed by the batsmen, together with the run in progress if they had already crossed at the instant of the throw or act."

Umpire Kumar Dharmasena, who had made the fateful call at Lord's, later explained the practical challenges of making such calls. On-field umpires are allowed to refer dismissals and contentious boundary calls to the third umpire, but this is just the kind of decision that needs a video review. The two events, the release of the throw and the crossing of batsmen, are happening tens of metres apart, which makes it near impossible for a human eye to decisively say what happened first. Especially when you are also trying to get into position should there be a run-out appeal while keeping an eye on any short runs and if the batsmen are running on the danger area.

Until a change is made to make the law more practical to implement or the ICC allows such referrals to the third umpire, such errors are likely to continue because the umpires are practically guessing what happened.