A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Abidal takes his first steps back

BARCELONA and France fullback Eric Abidal was briefly back on the training pitch yesterday after surgery last month on a liver tumour, the La Liga leaders said on their website (www.fcbarcelona.cat).

“In no way was it a training session but it was his first contact with the training ground.” the site noted, and noted the 31-year-old, who has been superb this season, should be able to begin training again towards the end of this month.

Balotelli conduct puts off Berlusconi

AC MILAN owner Silvio Berlusconi believes Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli’s off-the-field “behaviour” will prevent him from putting on the Rossoneri shirt in the future.

Berlusconi said to Gazzetta dello Sport: “There is a Milan style of behaviour that I don’t think is very close to that of Balotelli.

“Every now and then, he has a bit of a distraction. I don’t think his style suits us.”

The 20-year-old Balotelli grew up a fan of AC Milan and has been linked with the Rossoneri outfit.

Balotelli was last month dropped from the Italy squad for breaking the national team manager Cesare Prandelli’s code of conduct.

Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani refused to rule out a move for the forward last week - “We’ll see in the future, he said - but Berlusconi has now indicated that there will be no approach.

Bin Hammam Blatter's only rival  

MOHAMED Bin Hammam will be the only challenger for the Fifa presidency when incumbent Sepp Blatter stands for re-election on June 1st, soccers world governing body confirmed yesterday.

Fifa said Swiss Blatter, who has been president since 1998 and will be trying for a fourth term, and Qatari multi-millionaire businessman Bin Hammam were the only candidates to register by the April 1st deadline.

The election will be held at the Fifa Congress in Zurich where each one of the 208 member national associations holds a vote, provided they are not suspended at the time.

A former Blatter ally, Bin Hammam helped the Swiss win the elections in 1998 and 2002 but has been increasingly critical of Blatters leadership, saying that change is needed at the top and Fifa need a new figurehead.

Fifa have confirmed that Bosnia and Brunei are the only two associations currently suspended.

Fabregas unhurt after car prang on way to training

ARSENAL captain Cesc Fabregas was unhurt after being involved in a minor car accident yesterday morning, the club have confirmed.

The 23-year-old Spain midfielder had the collision on the way to training, but there were no serious issues with neither party requiring hospital treatment.

An Arsenal club spokesman confirmed: “Cesc was involved in a minor car accident on his way to training this morning.

“After the incident, Cesc made his way to our training ground in London Colney and took part in a training session as normal.

Fabregas has just returned from an injury lay-off, having missed two matches after a reoccurrence of his hamstring problem.

The accident occurred on the A41 road in Hendon, northwest London, near the club’s training ground.

“Police were called at 9.53 a.m. this morning to reports of a collision between two cars on the A41, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said. No one required hospital treatment. Just a prang.”

Major defensive woes for Dalglish

LIVERPOOL manager Kenny Dalglish faces an anxious few days as he waits to discover the extent of the latest injuries to hit the club.

Captain Steven Gerrard sustained another groin problem in training on Friday and missed Saturday’s defeat at West Brom which proved to be doubly costly as during the match defenders Glen Johnson (hamstring) and Daniel Agger (knee tendon) were also injured.

Martin Kelly had been excelling at right back until he tore a hamstring at West Ham a month ago and he suffered a recurrence of the problem which is likely to keep him out for longer.

With Johnson and Agger seemingly unlikely to be fit in time for Monday’s visit of Manchester City it appears Dalglish will have to field a back four which contains, arguably, just one of his first-choice players in Jamie Carragher.

Sotirios Kyrgiakos, who is vulnerable to pace and conceded Liverpool’s first penalty at the Hawthorns, is likely to partner Martin Skrtel in the centre.