James Harden didn't hold back in besmirching the Philadelphia 76ers, and now it's going to cost him.

The NBA fined Harden $100,000 on Tuesday for comments he made about his status with the 76ers.

While Harden famously called 76ers team president Daryl Morey "a liar," the league is punishing the 2017-18 NBA MVP for publicly saying he would not perform the services called for under his player contract unless he was traded. The league confirmed with Harden that he berated Morey because he believed the 76ers would not grant his trade request.

A $100,000 fine is the maximum the NBA can fine a player.

Harden picked up his $35.6million player option for the 2023-24 season in late June with the understanding that Morey would work out a trade, according to reports.

It was reported last week that the 76ers told Harden's agent, Mike Silverman, that Morey was unable to find a trade for the 10-time All-Star and the franchise wouldn't deal him unless it could find a trade that would help the team contend for a championship.

That prompted Harden to blast Morey at a promotional event in China.

"Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organisation that he’s a part of," Harden said in a video that went viral last week. "Let me say that again: Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organisation that he’s a part of."

The 76ers were reportedly involved in trade talks with both the Los Angeles Clippers and New York Knicks, but nothing came about of those discussions.

Harden, who turns 34 on Saturday, was a solid complement to NBA MVP Joel Embiid this past season, averaging 21.0 points and a league-leading 10.7 assists to help the 76ers to the third-best record in the Eastern Conference.

Philadelphia was knocked out in the conference semifinals for a second straight year after losing to the rival Boston Celtics in seven games, and Harden's play in the postseason was inconsistent. He had a pair of 40-point performances but averaged just 15.1 points on 30.0 per cent shooting with 8.4 assists in his other nine playoff games.

For his career, Harden has averaged 24.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 1.5 steals in exactly 1,000 regular-season games.

 

Sports stars and clubs across the world continue to provide an insight into their lives on social media.

Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the best examples from August 22.

Football

The Lionesses returned home and vowed to come back stronger.

Peter Crouch had a win.

Cricket

Alex Hartley called it a day.

Formula One

George Russell was ready to return to action.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were on the water.

Snooker

Six-time world champion Steve Davis turned 66.

Gymnastics

Max Whitlock returned.

Ackera Nugent, Devynne Charlton, Danielle Williams and Megan Tapper all progressed to the semi-finals of the 100m hurdles on day four of the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Tuesday.

Nugent, the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Champion, was first up in heat one, producing 12.60 to narrowly win ahead of American Masai Russell who was credited with the same time. Ireland’s Sarah Lavin (12.69) and France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela (12.71) completed the top four.

2019 World Champion, Nia Ali, ran 12.55 to win the second heat ahead of Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska (12.65), South Africa’s Marione Fourie (12.71) and Hungary’s Luca Kozak (12.71).

2015 World Champion Danielle Williams and 2022 World Indoor Champion Devynne Charlton both lined up in heat three. Charlton and Williams were second and third with 12.44, a new Bahamian national record, and 12.51, respectively, as the race was won by American former world record holder in a blistering 12.24. Great Britain’s Cindy Sember was fourth in 12.83.

Puerto Rico’s Olympic Champion, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, was next up in heat four. She continued her unbeaten run this season with 12.50 to comfortably win the heat ahead of the Netherlands’ Nadine Visser (12.68) and Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji (12.71). Celeste Mucci of Australia also made it through with 12.90 in fourth.

Jamaican national champion, Megan Tapper, finished second in the fifth and final heat in 12.51 to advance. Nigerian World Champion and world record holder Tobi Amusan ran 12.49 to win the heat while Australia’s Michelle Jenneke and Cyprus’ Natalia Christofi ran 12.71 and 12.90 in third and fourth, respectively.

York’s flagship meeting has plenty in store as the racing world descends on the city for the Sky Bet Ebor Festival.

The headline race on the opening day of the four-day event is the Juddmonte International, a Group One contest that is one of the highlight of not only the Ebor fixture but of the whole Flat calendar.

This year’s race has attracted a field of just four, but among them is arguably one of the best and most popular horses in training in Aidan O’Brien’s Paddington.

The colt has won a string of Group One events that includes the Irish 2,000 Guineas, the St James’s Palace Stakes, the Coral-Eclipse and the Sussex Stakes and now aims to add a fifth success at the top level to an already stellar CV.

He will face John and Thady Gosden’s Mostahdaf, a four-length winner of the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, plus his stablemate Nashwa and Andrew Balding’s Dante hero The Foxes.

“It looks a fascinating renewal, Paddington is seeking a fifth successive Group One and he’s taking on Mostahdaf, who was so impressive at Royal Ascot,” said William Derby, York’s chief executive and clerk of the course.

“I think they’ve won something like 14 Group races between them and the filly, Nashwa, adds a different dimension and of course The Foxes was so impressive in the Al Basti Equiworld Dante – it’s an interesting shape to the race and it’s filled with quality.”

On Thursday there is a superb race in prospect in the Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks, with 10 high-quality fillies declared including Irish Oaks heroine Savethelastdance and Bluestocking, runner-up at the Curragh.

Al Husn, successful in the Nassau Stakes, joins the fray, as does Ribblesdale Stakes winner Warm Heart and Middleton Stakes victor Free Wind.

“I’m delighted, especially as it’s Pertemps first sponsorship of the Yorkshire Oaks and it’s such a fascinating contest,” said Derby.

“The first two in the Irish Oaks take on the older horses, it looks really exciting. Al Husn is a Group One winner from Goodwood and it looks a real highlight of Ladies Day at the Ebor Festival.”

The Weatherbys Hamilton Lonsdale Cup promises to be a compelling renewal as many of the Goodwood Cup cast reassemble on the Knavesmire, including runaway winner Quickthorn and the Ascot Gold Cup champion Courage Mon Ami.

“It could be a Goodwood Cup rematch! I’m delighted that we have the Gold Cup winner from Royal Ascot looking like he’s coming, that division looks really open post Stradivarius so it will be interesting to see how it shapes up,” Derby said.

“Quickthorn did a similar job in the Lonsdale last year as he did at Goodwood so it will be interesting to see if they let him get an easy lead this time around.”

On the same day the five-furlong Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes is a race worth anticipating, with John Quinn’s locally-trained supermare Highfield Princess bidding to retain the title she won 12 months ago.

She is joined by a host of Northern-based rivals including the two-year-old Big Evs, Mick Appleby’s Royal Ascot and Goodwood star who was supplemented for the race following the latter of those triumphs.

Derby said: “In the Coolmore Nunthorpe Highfield Princess is a real local favourite, she’s trained 10 or 12 miles from the track and she won it last year as part of a hat-trick of Group Ones.

“The interesting addition is the two-year-old Big Evs, with a huge weight advantage, who tries to be the first two-year-old since Kingsgate Native in 2007 to overhaul his elders.

“It looks a really interesting race with lots of Yorkshire strength as well as the rest of fastest horses in the country.”

The final day of the meeting is the home of the valuable City of York Stakes and the namesake of the fixture, the Sky Bet Ebor Handicap, a wide-open contest held on what will likely be a final visit to York for the retiring great of the game that is Frankie Dettori – who also happens to be last year’s winner.

“We’ve got the Sky Bet City of York Stakes as well for £500,000, it is the most valuable Group Two and we’re really trying everything to see if that can be upgraded to Group One status,” said Derby.

“The Sky Bet Ebor is really open, as you’d expect for such a high value, highly-rated handicap. Twenty-two runners and each you could make a case for!

“It’s Britain’s richest Flat handicap and it looks really interesting as to whether Real Dream for Sir Michael Stoute can make amends for us all missing out on poor Desert Crown – that would be an amazing end to the week.

“It will also probably be Frankie Dettori’s last raceday at York so we’ll be looking forward to celebrating that. There’s a great deal to look forward to.”

Tommy Fury insisted he will end YouTube boxing by beating KSI on October 14, but the Briton’s fighting talk at a press conference was overshadowed by his father’s explosive antics.

Fury, the half-brother of unbeaten heavyweight world champion Tyson, returns to the ring for the second time this year after his decision victory over Jake Paul in February.

The 24-year-old was speaking in front of the media in London to promote the bout, only for the event to end prematurely after John Fury was angered by undercard fighters Logan Paul and Dillon Danis’ lewd war of words.

John Fury had enough, flipping over a table and kicking another to spark a melee on stage at OVO Arena Wembley.

Before the drama, Tommy Fury said: “I said that I’d end this (YouTube boxing) in 12 months.

“I fought Jake Paul in February and I’m fighting this man in October (KSI) and he will be done and YouTube boxing will be done. I only need one round (to win).”

Wales wing Louis Rees-Zammit believes he is “definitely quicker than last season” as he prepares to blast out of the starting blocks at his first World Cup.

The 22-year-old has carved out a reputation as one of world rugby’s finest finishers, combining blistering pace with a box-office ability to score spectacular tries.

And the sport’s biggest stage now awaits a player good enough to thrill a worldwide audience through his dazzling skill-set.

Asked to compare his speed with a year ago, Gloucester star Rees-Zammit said: “I would say I am even faster.

“I feel the fittest I have ever been, and I am just raring to go. In terms of numbers, I am definitely quicker than last season.

“Being so fit, it just allows you to repeat and repeat all day. Being able to do it once or twice isn’t good enough. I have got to maintain that and keep doing it.

“The (training) camps in Switzerland and Turkey lived up to expectations. They were the hardest things I have ever done.

“I feel so fit now. I am ready to perform, I am ready to play. We are all ready to go.

“We’ve got some very quick players – Rio (Dyer), Josh (Adams), the whole back-three, Mason Grady is rapid as well and the nines are very quick. We have got great pace in this squad.”

Fellow wing Adams has proved a source of inspiration to Rees-Zammit, who remembers watching as a 17-year-old while he excelled at the last World Cup in Japan.

Adams’ finished the tournament as top try-scorer with seven, a figure bettered only by three players in one World Cup campaign – Jonah Lomu, Bryan Habana and Julian Savea.

Adams’ 20 touchdowns for Wales mean he is in the same try bracket as greats like Sir Gareth Edwards and Gerald Davies, and Rees-Zammit is a huge fan.

“Josh helps me massively, doing analysis and making me learn the game better,” Rees-Zammit added.

“He has done it all, he has been on a (British and Irish) Lions tour and he has been top try-scorer at the World Cup. He is an unbelievable player.

“I was 17 at the last World Cup watching him score loads of tries while I was at Hartpury College. He was unbelievable.

“He was the stand-out player at the last World Cup. To be able to train and play with him day in, day out is so special.”

Despite his age, Rees-Zammit offers considerable experience on the back of 27 Wales caps and a Lions tour to South Africa in 2021.

“I feel quite experienced at such a young age,” he said. “Being on a Lions tour was amazing but being at a World Cup for your country is really special as well.

“I would never have have thought I would have gone to a World Cup, so I am absolutely over the moon to have this opportunity. I’ve got to take it now.”

Paddington continues his journey to superstardom in a Juddmonte International Stakes which may be short on numbers, but is bristling with quality at York on Wednesday.

The Group One contest has been won by some of the real greats and this year sees Aidan O’Brien’s all-conquering three-year-old up against a thriving Royal Ascot winner, a Classic-winning filly who cannot be dismissed lightly and a course-and-distance scorer yet to reach his ceiling.

It has been a phenomenal rise to the top for Paddington, who was competing in handicap company at the beginning of the season but has progressed through the ranks to become a multiple Group One winner and one of the best colts in training.

Having extended his winning run to seven in the Sussex Stakes when showcasing his dominance over a mile, the son of Siyouni now faces his toughest cast at 10 furlongs as he bids to join other Ballydoyle giants on the Knavesmire roll of honour.

Should Paddington be victorious, he would gain an automatic entry into the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race O’Brien did not dismiss when speaking after the Sussex Stakes and in which he went so close with Giant’s Causeway, winner of the Juddmonte International in 2000.

“He’s an amazing horse really and all he’s done is progress with each race,” O’Brien said.

“There’s nothing much else I can say about him, every time we’ve asked him a question he keeps coming up with it.

“Everything has gone well with him since his last run. The ground is fine and we know he stays the trip.

“He went to the Coral-Eclipse for his first run over a mile and a quarter, so this is a little bit further on a flatter track.

“It will be interesting to see and we’ll take it race by race with him at the moment.”

Frankie Dettori is locked with Lester Piggott on five race victories and will get one final opportunity to become the leading rider as he deputises for the suspended Jim Crowley aboard John and Thady Gosden’s Mostahdaf.

The Italian last tasted success in the contest aboard his Derby hero Authorized in 2007, but it could prove worth the long wait as he links up with a Royal Ascot winner at the peak of his powers.

John Gosden said: “The plan has always been to come here after Royal Ascot. There’s no change in Plan A, it was always to give him the time.

“He benefited from time between Saudi Arabia and running in Dubai through to June and, again, we’ve taken a similar spacing with him. He’s fine.”

A return to a mile and a quarter saw Mostahdaf thrive in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes where he romped to an imperious four-length triumph over a stellar cast and he has optimum yardage once again as he bids to give owners Shadwell back-to-back wins in the race following Baaeed’s memorable success 12 months ago.

“If I’m honest I was a bit surprised to see him win quite like that, but I probably shouldn’t have been after the way he won in Saudi earlier this year. He was very impressive there and really quickened,” explained Angus Gold, racing manager for the owners.

“I thought he ran well in the Sheema Classic at Meydan too, where Equinox just killed him off the bend and he didn’t get home, but I was still surprised to see just how well he was travelling against a proper Group One field at Royal Ascot, and just how well he quickened.

“I’d probably underestimated him, and it was great to see.”

He added ahead of the Qipco British Champions Series showpiece: “Frankie has had a sit on the horse. It was nothing testing, but he seemed very happy and John and his team were happy too.”

Mostahdaf is joined in the select quartet by stablemate and last year’s Prix de Diane heroine Nashwa, who excelled in the Falmouth Stakes on her penultimate start and wasn’t disgraced when defending her Nassau Stakes at Goodwood most recently.

“The slow pace didn’t really suit her in the Nassau Stakes and the ground was not entirely to her liking,” said Gosden senior.

“But she’s a nice filly and it’s important to run in races of this nature.”

As usual, Hollie Doyle partners Nashwa, and she is full of hope.

“I’m always delighted to be getting back on Nashwa and I thought it was a solid run at Goodwood considering the slow pace and not very nice ground,” she said.

“They had an easy time on the front end and Nashwa moved up like the best filly in the race, but she’d possibly been further back than ideal on that ground, which probably blunted the turn of foot she showed in the Falmouth.

“She takes her races very well, and I’m hearing good reports from home through Teddy Grimthorpe (owner Imad Al Sagar’s racing manager).”

Andrew Balding’s Dante winner The Foxes completes the line-up with connections seeking an upset at a venue where he has proven form.

“The others may be proven at a higher level, but I do feel The Foxes is an improving horse and we haven’t seen the best of him yet,” said Alastair Donald, racing manager for owners King Power.

“It looks like he’ll get his preferred conditions of fast ground and we know he likes the course and distance. It might end up being a trappy race and, you never know, it’s worth being there.

“I think if there was a slow pace, which there might be, that would suit us as well, and you have to be excited about taking them on.”

Grand Alliance opened up a new range of options when going down gallantly to Sober in the Prix Kergorlay at Deauville on Sunday.

The Charlie Fellowes-trained four-year-old split the two best stayers in France with Prix Maurice de Nieuil winner The Good Man back in third.

Despite being a half-brother to top seven-furlong specialist Dutch Connection, the gelding, who was bred by owners Paul and Susan Roy, now looks to have found his niche.

“He ran very well. In fairness, we stepped him up in trip on the advice of Ryan Moore after he had only ridden him once and as Ryan so often is, he was right,” said Fellowes.

“We always thought he was very ground dependent but going over two miles, he can run round in third gear rather than fifth.

“Sober and The Good Man are the two best stayers in France and he’s split them. The ground drying out probably just suited Sober more than us.

“Looking at his pedigree, you wouldn’t think he would stay a yard further than a mile, but the staying trips seem to suit him and it’s opened up a load more doors.

“There’s obviously the Cadran (September 30) and the Doncaster Cup (September 15) but that is not too far apart, so it will be one or the other on the way to Ascot.

“That’s two and a quarter miles at Donny, but Ryan suggested it and it makes sense as he’s won there before, it’s left-handed and Flat, so it could well be Donny and then Ascot on Champions Day.

“With the Prix Royal-Oak being two-five, that might just be stretching him a bit too far, but hopefully his owners can now have some fun with him.”

Baker Mayfield has his first win of the season, securing the starting quarterback job for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles named Mayfield the starter over Kyle Trask on Tuesday.

While Trask, a second-round pick in 2021, played well in the preseason, the Bucs opted to go with experience for their season opener against the Minnesota Vikings on September 10.

Mayfield, the top overall pick of the 2018 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns, has made 69 regular-season starts and takes over the reins at quarterback for Tampa Bay after the future Hall of Famer Tom Brady retired 

 

Acquired in March as a free agent on a one-year deal, Mayfield started Tampa Bay's first preseason game, completing 8-of-9 passes for 63 yards with a touchdown before giving way to Trask.

Mayfield did not play in the second exhibition game, while Trask got the start. In the two games, Trask completed 26-of-38 passes for 317 yards with a touchdown and interception.

Mayfield began last season as the Carolina Panthers starting quarterback but struggled with injuries and inefficient play, and was eventually benched in midseason. He later requested and was granted his release after appearing in six games for the Panthers.

Claimed off waivers by the Los Angeles Rams, Mayfield showed improved play with his new team, completing 63.8 per cent of his passes while throwing for three touchdowns with two interceptions in four starts.

In 12 overall games in 2022, Mayfield finished with 2,163 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions and a 79.0 passer rating that ranked 30th out of 33 qualified quarterbacks.

For his career, the 28-year-old has compiled 16,288 passing yards, 102 passing touchdowns and 64 interceptions along with a passer rating of 86.5.

His best season came in 2020, when he threw for a career-high 26 touchdowns and produced a 95.9 quarterback rating while leading Cleveland to an 11-5 regular-season record and a win over the rival Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round of the AFC playoffs.

Victory for Frankie Dettori on Mostahdaf in the Juddmonte International on Wednesday would make him the most successful jockey in the race’s illustrious history.

Dettori currently sits alongside the legendary Lester Piggott on five wins apiece, and the Italian has one more chance to make the record his own before he heads off into retirement.

He has partnered some truly great horses to win the York showpiece, such as Halling (1996), Singspiel (1997), Sakhee (2001) and his first Derby winner Authorized (2007). A spare ride following the suspension picked up by Jim Crowley, Mostahdaf would certainly fit alongside that list.

His four-length victory in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes last time out was jaw-dropping in its brilliance – but in Paddington he faces a genuine Horse of the Year candidate.

“I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy some great days of racing at York over the years, including winning the St Leger there on Sixties Icon whilst the stands were being rebuilt at Doncaster,” Dettori said his World Pool blog.

“The Juddmonte International has been a lucky race for me too, and one more win would take me past Lester Piggott as the race’s most successful jockey. I’ve won it with some of the greats like Sakhee, the Derby winner Authorized, Sulamani, Halling – he was a machine – and Singspiel. They were all serious horses, and hopefully Mostahdaf is too!”

He went on: “Him and Paddington are arguably the two best mile-and-a-quarter horses around, so we’ve got a great race on our hands. We’ve got to give 9lb to a very good three-year-old, so it won’t be an easy task, but my fella has done nothing wrong this year.

“I rode him the other day and he’s beautiful. A really strong, powerful horse, which is what you’d want to see in a five-year-old. Paddington is entitled to be a short-price favourite, but Mostahdaf has really stepped up this season and I’m looking forward to having a crack at it.”

Dettori also has leading claims in the Sky Bet Great Voltigeur Stakes on the unbeaten Leger favourite Gregory, like Mostahdaf trained by John and Thady Gosden.

“Gregory comes here off the back of a good win in the Queen’s Vase at Ascot, but it’s so hard to know what kind of form he’s in as he does nothing in the mornings. He’s so laid back that I don’t even think bombs would move him!” said Dettori.

“I’d like to think that he’ll improve again for that run at Ascot, which was only his third start, but we only know as much as anyone else that’s seen him race.”

The Bahamas has never sent its men’s basketball team to the Olympics. The island nation is now one step closer to changing that.

Eric Gordon scored 27 points, Buddy Hield added 17 and Bahamas stunned Argentina 82-75 to win one of the five Olympic pre-qualifying tournaments that were wrapping up around the world Sunday.

The win sends Bahamas into another Olympic qualifying tournament in July 2024, one that will bring with it a chance to qualify for next summer’s Paris Games.

Deandre Ayton had 10 points and 21 rebounds for Bahamas in the win over Argentina.

Argentina, who took home Olympic gold in 2004, will miss the games for the first time since 2000.

Other pre-qualifying tournament winners Sunday included Cameroon, Bahrain, Croatia and Poland.

Next summer, Bahamas, Cameroon, Bahrain, Croatia and Poland will join 19 other teams — based on World Cup finish — in the final qualifying round. Those 24 nations will be split into four tournaments of six teams; the four winners go to the Paris Olympics.

 

Three-time champion Max Whitlock has been named in a five-strong Great Britain men’s team for next month’s World Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp.

The event will represent the 30-year-old’s first global outing since he won his second career Olympic gold medal at the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Whitlock became the first British man to win a world gold medal in 2015 in Glasgow, and the first to defend the title in Montreal in 2017. He also won gold in Stuttgart in 2019.

Whitlock said: “I’m really excited to be selected for my seventh World Championships. This one however feels special – my first major competition since Tokyo Olympics.

“I’ve worked harder, become fitter and approached this build-up like never before. I’m excited to be back with the team with some big targets ahead.”

Whitlock is joined in the squad by James Hall, Courtney Tulloch, Jake Jarman and Harry Hepworth.

Gregory puts his Betfred St Leger aspirations to the test in Wednesday’s Sky Bet Great Voltigeur Stakes at York.

Trained by John and Thady Gosden, the high-class colt is a perfect three out of three in his career so far and is as short as 2-1 for the final Classic of the season at Doncaster on September 16 having enhanced his reputation with a taking success in the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot.

The son of Golden Horn was sporting the colours of Qatari-based owners Wathnan Racing for the first time when surging to victory at the Royal meeting and he will now bid to lay down a marker ahead of a potential trip to Town Moor next month in a race the Clarehaven team won with Logician in 2019 en route to St Leger glory.

John Gosden said: “He’s coming back two furlongs in distance from the Queen’s Vase and I think he’s going to be well suited by the St Leger distance.

“We planned the autumn campaign with him so that it was always one run and then to the Leger.”

Last year James Ferguson enjoyed one of the biggest days of his fledgling training career when Deauville Legend claimed the Voltigeur title and he is out to repeat the dose with Canberra Legend, who also carries the silks of owner Boniface Ho.

The Australia colt burst onto the scene when winning the Feilden Stakes in impressive style earlier in the season and following encouraging runs at both Royal Ascot and in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood, the Kremlin Cottage handler is confident there is still more to come.

“Obviously it’s a big ask for him, but I feel he has been developing throughout the year and crying out for a mile and a half,” said Ferguson.

“I thought he ran very well in the Gordon (at Goodwood) and this will teach us a lot about him. I think he is in as good form as I’ve ever had him and the race has cut up enough for me to feel it is worth taking our chance.

“He’s getting better with every run. Put a line through the Dante the last time he went to York and I think he’s probably a bigger price than what he should be.”

Continuous is the sole Aidan O’Brien representative, bringing course form to the table having been third in the Dante.

He was last seen chasing home King Of Steel in the King Edward VII Stakes, while two and a half lengths behind Continuous when third at Ascot was Artistic Star, with Ralph Beckett’s runner also having a bit to find with Canberra Legend from when they met on the Sussex Downs recently.

Charlie Appleby’s Castle Way completes the line-up and is another who will have one eye on a visit to Town Moor as he attempts extend his three-race winning streak after adding the Bahrain Trophy to his reappearance win in the Newmarket Stakes.

Assistant coach Mike Catt admits injured hooker Dan Sheehan is “instrumental” in Ireland’s style of play and would be a “big loss” for the Rugby World Cup.

Sheehan put a dampener on Saturday’s 29-10 victory over England by limping off shortly before half-time, with Ireland’s coaching staff still anxiously waiting to discover the extent of his foot issue.

The 24-year-old remained in Dublin for treatment as Andy Farrell’s men flew to France to prepare for this weekend’s final warm-up match, against Samoa in Bayonne.

Rob Herring, Ronan Kelleher, Tom Stewart and the uncapped Diarmuid Barron have travelled and will seek to stake their claims for the number two role.

Catt insists Ireland’s coaching team have full confidence in the back-up options but concedes potentially losing “world-class” Sheehan for part or all of the World Cup, which starts on September 8, would be a major blow.

“I think what you get from Dan, he’s one of the best hookers in the world currently, so he’s going to be missed in whatever team he plays in,” he said.

“But we’ve got full faith in Rob Herring and Ronan Kelleher and Tom Stewart.

“It gives these guys an opportunity, they’ll have a pop this weekend and, depending on the diagnosis, we’ll see how we go on the back end of it.

“But he (Sheehan) is a world-class rugby player, he’s been instrumental in terms of how to play our game, so he’d be a big loss for everybody.”

South Africa-born Herring, Ireland’s only hooker remaining from the 2019 World Cup in Japan, came off the bench to replace Sheehan in the 37th minute against Steve Borthwick’s side at the Aviva Stadium.

Sheehan’s Leinster team-mate Kelleher is yet to feature at Test level since the Six Nations but head coach Farrell is positive he will be fit for the World Cup in spite of a hamstring issue.

Stewart made his Ireland debut off the bench in the 33-17 win over Italy on August 5, while fellow international rookie Barron is awaiting his maiden outing having trained in camp this summer.

Speaking of Sheehan’s condition, Catt continued: “We still haven’t got a confirmation on what it is. He’s still seeing the specialist, he’s obviously being rehabbed back in Dublin.

“Hopefully Andy will have a bit more of an outcome-based answer (later in the week). As we currently stand, he’s seeing specialists and getting the proper treatment.

“We’ll have much clearer idea tomorrow or Thursday in terms of where he’s at and what his return dates are.”

Ireland’s World Cup opener is on September 9 against Romania in Bordeaux. Farrell will name his final 33-man squad for the tournament on Monday.

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