#squad-rotation

#squad-rotation

Now, according to SPORT, Fermin's physical problem originated in Barcelona's La Liga game against Athletic Club last weekend. It came specifically from Oihan Sancet's very harsh tackle, a play in which the Athletic midfielder caught Fermin on his leg, forcing him to remain on the ground for a long moment and showing clear signs of pain. Sancet was sent off for the challenge.

As such, he has played nine consecutive matches, completing the full 90 minutes in eight of them, and did not take part in group training on Friday. The accumulation of minutes is beginning to take its toll, and Flick may decide it's finally time to give the 25-year-old a breather. Another factor behind Kounde's recent dip in sharpness is Lamine Yamal's fitness issues.

Players like Romain Esse and Christantus Uche were recently involved with the Crystal Palace under-21 side against Stevenage, and that is a strong hint that the two players will not be a part of the team in the midweek. Both players have struggled for opportunities under Oliver Glasner this season, and it will be interesting to see if they can convince the manager to give them more opportunities in the coming weeks.

Dortmund travel to Parken hoping to bounce back from their defeat to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga at the weekend. Kovac's side are seventh in the 36-team league standings after collecting four points from their first two games, beating Athletic Bilbao 4-1 in their last European fixture. Dortmund have only lost one of their eight Champions League matches under Kovac (W4 D3), who replaced Nuri Sahin back in January.

Gyokeres has played 90 minutes in six of Arsenal's opening 10 matches - more than Arteta planned for, with the knee injury to Kai Havertz restricting the ability the manager has to rotate the 27-year-old. Havertz is one of Arteta's most trusted players and there is an argument to be had that the German would have started instead of Gyokeres in big away matches against Liverpool - the Gunners' only defeat of the season - Newcastle United and Manchester United, which they won.

Both managers made changes to their strongest teams, which was expected from a Sparta perspective ahead of Sunday's Prague derby but a little surprising from the Irish point of view considering Kerry are their FAI Cup opponents - Bradley said afterwards that the meeting with the First Division underdogs did influence his selection. Graham Burke is used to dropping out for away days in Europe to make room for Darragh Nugent, but Dylan Watts and Danny Mandroiu also joined him on the bench,

"Hattrick Harry is what they used to call me in school when I was younger."

A record-breaking nine English sides will play European football in 2025-26 - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle and Tottenham in the Champions League; Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest in the Europa League; and Crystal Palace in the Conference League. But will those clubs who are not in Europe be able to capitalise on having a less hectic fixture schedule and more rest between matches? When Leicester City shocked the footballing world to win the Premier League in 2015-16, they only played 43 games in all competitions, with no European distractions.

He missed a lot of pre-season. He is ready for one game a week, maybe 70-90 [minutes]. He played 90 for Argentina and was really tired after 70 so doesn't have the right build-up to play three games a week, 90 minutes. I was always sure I would take him off after 60 minutes for him to be ready to be back on the pitch on Wednesday and Saturday and I already made one substitution in the first half.

Ireland hope to back up last week's opening World Cup win over Japan with another victory at Franklin's Gardens in Northampton this afternoon. Scott Bemand has made seven changes for today's game against Spain, as the side keep one eye on their final Pool C clash with New Zealand next Sunday. Rian Noctor takes you through all the action below on our liveblog.

"Then we will make the choice to try to get the best starting XI to win the game."

Image source, SNS Celtic are about to set off to Kazakhstan on the most important trip of their season. They do so on the back of three goals, three points and a decent-enough display, from a much-changed team against Livingston, which keeps up the Scottish champions' perfect domestic start. Amid all that at Celtic Park on Saturday, there was some of the stodginess that characterised the drab goalless first leg against the Kazakhs and more grumbling from the fans.

The build-up to this game has been completely dominated by a disastrous day for Drogheda United, especially painful as Shamrock Rovers are in town.