EURO NEWS : Thiago Silva Puts PSG On Hold

Former Manchester United striker Chicharito took an international flight to be at his girlfriend’s side after she was hospitalised with a collapsed lung.

The footballer, who now stars for German side Bayer Leverkusen, was granted special permission to leave the club and fly to see his girlfriend Lucia Villalon while most of his team-mates are away on international duty.

The 28-year-old Mexico international, whose real name is Javier Hernandez, was not called up for his national team’s World Cup qualifiers against New Zealand and Panama because he is recovering from a broken hand.

With his schedule free from league fixtures, he asked his coach Roger Schmidt for special permission to go to see Lucia in Spain. The exact location of the hospital where she is said to be recovering has not been released.

Schmidt said: ‘Chicha has an individual training schedule. It makes sense that he’s not here this week, because of his private situation and also so he can rest after his broken hand. He’s not joining his national team.’

Chicharito whose nickname means ‘Little Pea’ in Mexican – has been on fire for the Bundesliga side, having scored five goals in his last three games.

It was not revealed whether the striker, who has scored seven goals in all competitions this season for Leverkusen, would return in time for their next game against Werder Bremen on 15th October.

Jose Edmilson, a former defensive midfielder who made 71 appearances for Barcelona and is now an ambassador of the club, insists the Brazilian must continue playing his own game despite the Argentine’s injury absence.

The 40-year-old, who is a member of Brazil’s football federation, believes the 24-year-old – who has netted four La Liga goals in five games this season – already has his own space within the Catalan Giants.

“Neymar should be natural, he already has his space at Barcelona. He shouldn’t try and be Messi,” Edmilson told Esports Cope, as reported by Sport.

Neymar, who won Gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics, scored 24 goals and assisted 12 in La Liga last season.

Messi is currently out for three weeks following a groin injury which he picked up against in their 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid last month, meaning he’ll miss Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers against Peru and Paraguay.

Luis Enrique’s side face Deportivo in La Liga before going up against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the Champions League group stage.

Valencia FC’s newly appointed Italian coach Cesare Prandelli on Thursday started his work on the team’s tactical aspects which the Bats suffered during the early stages of the football season.

The team, which collected so far six out of 21 possible La Liga points, started to train on Thursday to raise the players’ fitness before the end of the international break,

Dani Parejo, Enzo Perez, Eliaquim Mangala and Diego Alves did not take part in physical workouts along with their teammates, as they continue their recovery from various muscular injuries, hoping they will catch up with the upcoming game against Sporting Gijon.

Joao Cancelo, Luis Nani, Mathew Ryan, Aymen Abdennour, Jose Luis Gaya, Munir El Haddadi and Zakaria Bakkali are all busy fulfilling their international duties and missed Thursday’s workouts.

Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker is being linked with a return to former club Hannover.

The ex-Germany international Mertesacker, aged 32, is being lined up for a switch to his first team when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Despite having only just inherited the captain’s armband from Mikel Arteta, Mertesacker has been sidelined with injury since the start of the season and will have an uphill task to dislodge either Laurent Koscielny or summer signing Shkodran Mustafi from Arsene Wenger’s starting lineup.

Against that backdrop, Hannover are hopeful that they can convince Mertesacker to rejoin them. But they acknowledge that they might need to win promotion back to the top-flight in order to secure his signing.

The German side’s director Martin Bader is quoted as saying: “Everybody knows what Hannover mean to Per. Maybe we can make him enthusiastic about a return.

“But re-signing Mertesacker is not our main priority at the moment. We are playing in the 2. Bundesliga right now and he is Arsenal’s captain. A lot of things will have to happen in order to make a return a realistic option.”

Mertesacker played for Hannover between 1995 and 2006. He then moved on to Werder Bremen, before joining Arsenal in 2011. He has made 208 appearances for the Gunners to date.

Javier Mascherano is set to sign a brand new contract with Barcelona following the international break despite persistent rumours linking him with a move to China.

The 32-year-old had a summer of speculation linking the Argentina international to Italian side Juventus, where he would have joined up with Dani Alves, the two clubs held discussions but Barcelona were never keen to sell.

But at one point it looked most likely that he would want to make the move to Italy and emergency crisis talks between Mascherano and Barcelona technical secretary Robert Fernandez, who flew over to the USA specially to meet with Mascherano during Copa America, were held.

Juventus never made a formal approach and Barcelona agreed a new contract with Mascherano despite the Argentinian being concerned over his regular place in the squad following the signing of French international defender Samuel Umtiti from Olympique Lyonnais.

Karim Benzema and Marcelo have given a boost to Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane ahead of the coming La Liga trip to Real Betis by returning to training. Furthermore, Raphael Varane has joined the France national team after been declared fit but Casemiro, Luka Modric and Fabio Coentrao continued their respective recoveries.

The Champions League winners will travel to Betis on 15 October after the international break in the hope of returning to their winning ways following four consecutive draws against Villarreal, Las Palmas, Borussia Dortmund and Eibar. Zidane has been training without 15 first-team players during the past two days due to their international commitments. Yet, the club have revealed that at least the French boss welcomed the return of both Marcelo and Benzema.

“The week’s training continued today at Real Madrid City with 15 players absent as they train with their national teams. For the second day in a row Casilla, Yáñez, Marcelo, Danilo, Benzema and Mariano trained along with the Castilla players on pitch three,” Real Madrid confirmed.

Marcelo had missed the last three games with a muscle strain. Meanwhile, Zidane revealed after the latest draw with Eibar that Benzema and Varane were forced off at half-time due to minor injuries.

Reports from Portugal indicate that Middlesbrough, the newly promoted side in the Barclays Premier League could be making yet another major signing.

After acquiring Victor Valdes and Gaston Ramirez, A Bola reports Benfica’s Victor Lindelof could be their third big name move this season. But Internazionale aren’t giving up yet on the hunt for the 22-year-old Swede.

Comparable to players like Daniele Rugani and Antonio Rudiger, Lindelof presents Inter with the opportunity to sign a highly rated young player for their defense, which for the moment they are lacking.

For the moment, it’s uncertain where he will end up, but it appears that Lindelof is close to a 3rd club of his young career.

Tottenham Hotspur forward Erik Lamela could one day return to boyhood club River Plate but for now is solely focused on life at White Hart Lane.

The north London side have been busy in recent weeks tying members of their squad down to new long-term deals, with Danny Rose, Kyle Walker, Christian Eriksen, Harry Winks, Tom Carroll, Eric Dier and Dele Alli all signing new contracts since the start of September.

The club are unlikely to stop there with reports suggesting Jan Vertonghen and Lamela are among those currently in talks to renew their deals. Lamela is currently with the Argentina squad ahead of a World Cup qualifier against Peru but spoke to La Pagina Millonaria about his time at River, the club he joined as a seven-year-old.

Like his fellow Argentines Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero, the 24-year-old has visions of one day returning to the club where it all started for him. But that day would appear to be a long way off for now.

Ranieri warns Juventus “are on a different planet” and pays tribute to Roma captain Francesco Totti.

The Leicester City manager is a former Bianconeri Coach, and believes it will take something special to overhaul them this term.

“[Napoli Coach Maurizio] Sarri is right,” Ranieri cautioned after receiving an award in Rome.

“Juventus are on a different planet. He’s right, because he’s an honest man and he tells the truth, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe in his players and that he won’t do everything to beat them.

“A Coach has to say what he feels and convey reality, and right now the reality is that Juventus are on another planet.

“They’ll try to beat them though, as will Roma, that’s understood.

“Juventus have a hierarchy which is reaping the reward of their planning, so before you fire-up the fans you need a club that can compete with Juventus.”

Ranieri is also a former Roma boss, and he paid tribute to 40-year-old captain Francesco Totti.

“There’s the Coliseum, St. Peter’s Basilica and then there’s Francesco Totti.

“As long as he has fun – and that’s one of things that’s kept him going for so many years – why should he stop? A player of his quality can still play for many years.

“Was I tempted to bring him to Leicester? No, he’s happy in Rome.”

Kevin De Bruyne is not expected to return from injury in time for Manchester City’s Champions League clash with Barcelona at the camp Nou on Oct. 19.

De Bruyne’s return could be delayed to ensure he makes a full recovery from the hamstring injury suffered in the win over Swansea City on Sept. 24.

The Belgium international was initially expected to be out for four weeks but a source told ESPN FC he was not expected to be fully fit for Barcelona and could miss the Premier League game against Southampton four days later.

De Bruyne, 25, travelled to Barcelona for treatment from specialist Dr Ramon Cugat along with City and Belgium teammate Vincent Kompany, who suffered a groin injury three days earlier.

City coach Pep Guardiola said before the Champions League clash with Celtic that the duo did not have “big problems” and hoped to have them back for the Camp Nou game.

De Bruyne could now return for the EFL Cup fourth-round clash with Manchester United at Old Trafford on Oct. 26.