Sports Shorts: Spain keeper Valdes to miss World Cup, out for seven months

Spain goalkeeper Victor Valdes will miss the World Cup after being ruled out of action for seven months following knee surgery.

He had been in good form this season for Barcelona, who are in contention to win three trophies, before suffering a cruciate ligament injury making a routine save in last week's La Liga game against Celta Vigo.

"The player has been operated on by Dr Ulrich Boenisch and Ricard Pruna in Augsberg, Germany," the club said in a statement.

"The operation was a success and he will now be out for approximately seven months."

Valdes, 32, was set to be named in Vicente del Bosque's Spain squad to go to the World Cup and had a good chance of being the first-choice keeper with Iker Casillas having lost his place in the Real Madrid team to Diego Lopez.

Valdes's contract with Barca runs out in June and he is looking for a move away from the Nou Camp.

Martina Hingis made a winning return when the Swiss player and German partner Sabine Lisicki claimed the Sony Open doubles title on Sunday with a 4-6, 6-4 (10-5) over Russian duo Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.

The title was Hingis's first since winning the doubles in Doha in 2007.

Since retiring that year, Hingis, a former-world number one, has flirted with a doubles comebacks.

Last year the winner of five singles and nine doubles grand slam career titles attempted a return with Daniela Hantuchova but found little success, winning just three-of-five matches and falling in the first round of the U.S. Open.

Hingis launched a second comeback this season, losing in the first round of Indian Wells, but looked right at home on the Miami hardcourts, returning to the winner's circle at an event she won twice (1998-99).

Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon's heroics were not enough for Juventus as the Serie A leaders lost 2-0 at an inspired Napoli on Sunday, only their second league defeat of the season.

Jose Callejon and substitute Dries Mertens, who had only been on the pitch for two minutes, handed Juventus their first league defeat since October 20 to give a glimmer of hope to chasing AS Roma.

Second-placed Roma cut Juve's lead to 11 points after a controversial 2-0 win at lowly Sassuolo where play was delayed for five minutes as the referee changed his mind over a penalty decision.

Juventus have 81 points from 31 games and seven left to play while Roma have 70 and Napoli, in the Champions League playoff spot, are on 64.

They are followed by Fiorentina (52) and Inter Milan (48) who visit Udinese on Monday.

Although Juventus still have a huge lead, there were enough signs of fatigue in their performance to give encouragement to Roma who have a game in hand.

At the San Paolo, Napoli piled into Juventus from the start and only 36-year-old goalkeeper Buffon kept them at bay as he made a point blank save from Callejon and brilliantly turned Marek Hamsik's effort over the bar.

Hamsik also had a goal disallowed but Rafael Benitez's side were finally rewarded when Callejon got in front of Kwadwo Asamoah to turn Lorenzo Insigne's cross past Buffon in the 28th minute.

Juventus playmaker Andrea Pirlo failed to hit the target with his usually dependable free kicks and even sent one crossfield pass straight to the opposition in a weary-looking first-half display.

The visitors improved after halftime but, just as they were threatening an equaliser, Napoli broke clear and Mertens fired an angled shot past Buffon with nine minutes left.

Lazio, again playing in a half-empty Stadio Olimpico as fans continued to boycott the team in protest at president Claudio Lotito, beat Parma 3-2 thanks to a stoppage-time winner from Antonio Candreva.

Senad Lulic and Miroslav Klose twice gave Lazio the lead but Parma hit back through Jonathan Biabiany and a bizarre Michael Ciani own goal.

Ciani made a complete hash of an attempt to control the ball and sent it between Lazio goalkeeper Federico Marchetti's legs.

Italian World Cup referee Nicola Rizzoli was involved in an extraordinary incident when he awarded a penalty and then changed his mind after five minutes of angry protests during second-placed AS Roma's 2-0 win at Sassuolo on Sunday.

Rizzoli asked Sassuolo forward Nicola Sansone, the player who suffered the alleged foul, what had happened before making his final decision, according to AS Roma players.

Rizzoli initially awarded Sassuolo a penalty when Sansone went down under a seemingly innocuous challenge by Roma defender Mehdi Benatia in the 36th minute of the Serie A match.

Both teams protested the decision, with Roma angry over the penalty and Sassuolo claiming that Benatia should have been sent off.

Sassuolo had already put the ball on the spot and were preparing to take the kick when Rizzoli, after consulting his assistants, changed his mind and awarded a drop ball.

There were more protests at halftime as Sassuolo players again surrounded Rizzoli to protest the decision.

Serie A uses the additional assistant referees system preferred by UEFA with extra match officials on each goal line.

"The referee didn't want to give the penalty but the goal-line official told him it was a penalty," Benatia told Sky Sport Italia.

"He asked Sansone to telling him the truth, assuring that he would not get a yellow card (for diving). That made us a little angry, because you can't ask that sort of thing to a player whose team are battling relegation.

"Sansone said that he slipped but that I had pulled his shirt and the referee decided not to give the penalty."

Real Sociedad and Villarreal failed to capitalise on defeats for European qualification rivals Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla when they were held to 1-1 draws by Osasuna and Elche respectively in La Liga on Sunday.

Sixth-placed Sociedad took the lead in the eighth minute at Osasuna through Gonzalo Castro before Oriol Riera levelled for the home side just before the hour.

Villarreal, who are seventh, had to come from a goal down to rescue a point at home to regional rivals Elche at the Madrigal.

Fourth-placed Bilbao lost 2-1 to leaders Atletico Madrid at their San Mames stadium on Saturday after Sevilla, in fifth, had their six-match winning streak snapped in a 1-0 reverse at Celta Vigo.

"It's hard to maintain control at this stadium," Sociedad coach Jagoba Arrasate told a news conference at Osasuna's El Sadar arena in Pamplona.

"We had our chances in the second half and they did too," he added. "Looking at it objectively I think a point each was a fair result."

Arrasate's Villarreal counterpart Marcelino Garcia said his players had lacked efficiency in front of goal.

"We went after the win from the first minute, we controlled the majority of the game, showed some good moments and had chances to score," he said.

"We just needed to be a bit more accurate in putting the ball between the posts."

With seven matches left, Bilbao are on course for a place in Champions League qualifying on 56 points, six ahead of Sevilla and Sociedad. Villarreal have 49, nine ahead of eighth-placed Espanyol and Valencia, who are ninth after they lost 3-1 at home to Getafe in Sunday's late kickoff.

Tempers frayed in the final stages of the game at the Mestalla and Valencia captain Jeremy Mathieu was sent off after clashing with Getafe forward Pedro Leon.

In the bottom half of the table, just four points separate Granada on 34 in 12th place from Almeria, Osasuna and Real Valladolid in 17th through 19th.

Real Betis, who host Malaga on Monday, are eight points adrift at the bottom, while Madrid-based Getafe climbed to 16th on 31 points thanks to their first win in 17 matches in all competitions.

Richard Gasquet has pulled out of France's Davis Cup quarter-final tie against Germany this week with a lower back injury, the French federation said on Monday.

The FFT said in a statement that captain Arnaud Clement called up Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Michael Llodra to make up for the absence of Gasquet, who requires eight days of rest.

Clement, who also called up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Julien Benneteau and Gael Monfils, has until Thursday's draw to name his final team.

Germany are already without Tommy Haas and Florian Mayer, who are both injured, for the tie taking place in Nancy, Eastern France from Friday.

A supporter of Stockholm club Djurgarden has died from head injuries sustained in an assault before his team's opening Swedish league match at Helsingborg, police said on Sunday, with the match subsequently abandoned before halftime.

"I can confirm that a person has died at Helsingborg Hospital. He was brought there after an incident at Karntrappan in central Helsingborg," police spokesperson Ewa-Gun Westford told website Fotbollskanalen (www.fotbollskanalen.se).

The incident occurred about a half an hour before kickoff on the opening weekend of the Swedish league.

Rumours of the 40-year-old's death spread through the terraces about 40 minutes into the match, prompting Djurgarden fans to storm on to the pitch.

Referee Martin Hansson took the players off in the 42nd minute and a tense standoff between police, security staff and fans ensued.

A decision was taken to abandon the game with the score tied at 1-1, shortly before the police confirmed the man had died.

Football in the normally peaceful Scandinavian country has long been plagued by violent incidents, with several matches being abandoned in recent years due to pitch invasions and fireworks being thrown on to the field.

With Indian Boxing Federation's return to the fold of its international body likely to take time, the Indian Olympic Association is set to constitute a committee to pick the teams for the upcoming  Commonwealth and Asian Games.

A top IOA official said that in view of the upcoming Commonweath Games in Glasgow from July 23 to August 3 and the Asian Games in Incheon from September 19 to October 4, a committee will be constituted to pick the India boxers as the deadline for sending the final list of participants for these showpiece multi-sporting events is fast approaching.

"The CWG and Asiad are a few months away and deadline for sending final list of participants will be approaching. But the situation is fluid now as we don't know how long it takes for the boxing issue to be resolved," the official said.

"So, we have decided to form a committee to pick teams for the CWG and Asian Games. It may be done during the April 3 Executive Committee meeting or a few days later. We have to do it fast," he said.

The committee is expected to be assisted by boxing coaches and other technical staff in picking the players.

The International Boxing Federation (AIBA) suspended the IBF on the suspicion of "manipulation" in the 2012 elections and has now invited applications from various Indian boxing groups to find out who can run the sport in the country through an election.

Asked if the IOA's step would not take it to a collision course with the AIBA, the official said, "AIBA had asked for IOA's cooperation in resolving the issue in a letter sent to us. So I don't see any issue in that.

"Moreover, it's about India's prestige and performance in these two major Games. We have to think about winning medals and if the boxing issue is not solved before CWG and Asian Games, should not we send our boxers in these two Games?" he asked.

Meanwhile, IOA chief N Ramachandran has met International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach in Lausanne. He is expected to brief the details of the meeting to the IOA top brass in its executive committee meeting in New Delhi, on April 3.