It is true but since the chairman are incapable of looking beyond self-interest it falls to nature to intervene

It is true but, since the chairman are incapable of looking beyond self-interest, it falls to nature to intervene. Many injuries are caused by too much football, either directly, as in wear-and-tear injuries like cartilages, or indirectly, through having inadequate time to recover between games. The silver lining is that injuries force rest that ultimately benefits the player and his team.Shearer has been suffering from a groin injury for some weeks but, with Blackburn chasing a European place, has continued playing. He has finally admitted defeat and undergoes an operation tomorrow.”It is disappointing to miss the end of the season but, by doing what I’m doing now, my specialist is confident I will be fit for Euro 96,” he said. At which point Venables added “and maybe the tour” in reference to England’s trip to China and Hong Kong in late May.”It’s been getting worse for the last three matches,” Venables said. With David James stranded, Andrei Kanchelskis, who had already failed to connect with two promising chances, got in ahead of Rob Jones to first knock the ball down and then shoot home.Everton, with Kanchelskis’s pace always a threat even in ankle-deep water, could have had more to show for their willingness to contend with the realities of a night that was never made for subtlety, but they were rocked by a complete change in Liverpool’s attitude and approach after the break.Liverpool had treated the messier areas of the pitch with a mixture of disdain and trepidation, but at half-time they decided that this playing surface was the one they were stuck with and they had better make the best of it.Nobody exemplified that better than Collymore.

The move follows the resignation yesterday of three directors.. DAVE HADFIELD

Everton 1 Liverpool 1
A goal by Robbie Fowler three minutes from time gave Liverpool a deserved share of the points from a Merseyside derby played in appalling conditions at Goodison Park last night.Although Fowler’s volleyed equaliser from Stan Collymore’s cross was greeted with delight among the minority red contingent in the crowd, this was a negative result for both camps, not enough to sustain Liverpool’s lingering Premiership hopes but a blow to Everton’s prospects of European qualification.Each side had half a match in which they could have turned dominance into a heavy haul of goals, but it was Liverpool, unlikely underdogs in recent derby history, who created more in the final analysis.That was a pattern that was hardly imaginable in the first half when Everton, enjoying the mud and water far more than their visitors, showed a greater appetite for the proceedings.While Liverpool struggled in vain to adapt their more cerebral style to the quagmire, Everton disregarded all such niceties and hammered the ball down field in a bid to force mistakes.That was precisely the way they created their goal, Neville Southall lifting his clearance into the Liverpool half and John Ebbrell getting outside a defence that was caught napping by how far the ball had travelled.Ebbrell did well to pull back his shot from a near impossible angle and on to the crossbar. We need some direction.”At the moment I’d be a fool to put pen to paper and commit other people’s livelihoods as well. I saw what happened at Tottenham when they first went public and it was frightening.

I don’t think it’s all rosy and there are a lot of things that need to be talked about and sorted out.”Millwall’s manager, Jimmy Nicholl, could return to first-team football at the age of 39. Nicholl, who last played in the English league 10 years ago, is contemplating playing Millwall’s critical relegation game at home against Oldham on Saturday.The former Northern Ireland full-back played for his former club, Raith Rovers, this season but his last English League game was for West Bromwich Albion in a 5-0 defeat at Tottenham on 8 March 1986.The new Millwall manager, who played a full reserve match against Brighton on Monday, has four defenders suspended and Damien Webber is also injured.The Football Association has commended police and stewards at Highbury for their swift action in quelling ugly scenes in Arsenal’s Clock End stand after Monday’s north London derby against Tottenham.Thirteen arrests were made after rival fans hurled missiles, including bottles and broken seats, but the FA will not be taking any action.n Dumbarton, doomed to relegation to the Scottish Second Division, are up for sale. But they don’t understand the issues which have got to be sorted out from the top level. “I need to know exactly what’s going on and it has taken a hell of a long time to get this meeting to fruition.”Chelsea players have encouraged Hoddle to stay and finish the job at Stamford Bridge where Bates took the holding company, Chelsea Village, on to the Alternative Investment Market recently.”Supporters keep saying to me, `Why haven’t you signed your contract?’. The Chelsea manager meets his club chairman, Ken Bates, and his boardroom colleagues tomorrow after Chelsea’s Premiership trip to Sheffield Wednesday.”It’s not about my contract but about how the club is going to be run Hopefully it’s going to be positive,” Hoddle said. Chris Waddle, who will be a free agent at the end of the season, has refused a one-year deal at Sheffield Wednesday.