Roger Federer will make a "last-moment decision" on his participation in next week's Laver Cup, according to fitness coach Pierre Paganini.

The 20-time grand slam champion announced on Thursday he will retire from top-level tennis after the tournament at London's O2 Arena.

However, Federer has not competed since Wimbledon 2021, after which he underwent a third knee operation.

And Paganini has cast doubt over whether the Swiss will be able to link up with the likes of Novak Djokovic, Rafal Nadal and Andy Murray in what is supposed to be his farewell event.

"This will probably be a last-moment decision," Paganini told Bilk. "He's practised at a level in order to determine exactly if playing is a good idea or not."

Federer is bringing down the curtain on a remarkable career that saw him win 103 ATP Tour-level titles – only Jimmy Connors (109) boasts more in the Open Era.

Among an array of other notable achievements, the 41-year-old spent a record 750 weeks in the top 10 of the men's singles rankings.

But Paganini says it "became clear a return to the Tour would be impossible" around July as injury problems took their toll on the all-time great.

In a more positive update, fellow coach Severin Luthi indicated Federer is on course to be fit to play at least some part in the Laver Cup.

"His aim is to play something, though whether it's singles or doubles we'll have to see," Luthi told Blick. "His aim is still to play at the Laver Cup – definitely.

"We train for three hours in the morning, then another two hours in the afternoon. He trained last week and is training again this week."

France head coach Didier Deschamps says Paul Pogba "will do everything to recover as quickly as possible" ahead of the upcoming World Cup, but accepts time is not on the midfielder's side.

Pogba underwent external meniscus surgery in early September and is not expected to be back on the field for another six weeks.

This puts the 29-year-old's World Cup place in serious doubt, with the tournament in Qatar just over two months away.

But Deschamps has no doubt Pogba will do all he can to recover in time, telling Telefoot: "I know Paul well, he will do everything to recover as quickly as possible and be with us in November.

"But the timing is short. He will come provided he is fit and in competitive mode."

Pogba is yet to make a competitive appearance for Juventus since he returned on a free transfer from Manchester United in July.

And Deschamps already insisted on Thursday he will not take the midfielder to Qatar if he is unfit, saying: "If he is recovered, it would be a very good thing.

"He won't come if he's not fit. He doesn't want that either. It's inconceivable. The number of players who will be there, they will all be ready to play."

Pogba was not the only notable player to be ruled out of Deschamps' France squad for their upcoming Nations League fixtures, with Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante and Presnel Kimpembe among the other absentees from the games against Austria and Denmark.

The 2018 World Cup winners have much work to do if they are to avoid relegation from the Nations League's top tier, having drawn two and lost two of their opening four matches in Group A1.

Shohei Ohtani further strengthened his MVP case after pitching seven scoreless innings, driving in one run and scoring another as the Los Angeles Angels claimed a 2-1 win over the Seattle Mariners.

The second straight victory for the Angels over the Mariners dropped the latter in the Wild Card standings, and bolstered their star man's case against the New York Yankees' Aaron Judge AL MVP.

Getting on base twice in three at-bats, Ohtani drove in his 89th run of the season. He also lowered his ERA to 2.43.

"I've said it before: He's the most valuable player of our game right now," interim Angels manager Phil Nevin said. "Until somebody can come in and do the things he does on both sides, I don't see it going any other way.

"I love Aaron Judge like a son, but I'll continue to say it: [Ohtani] can take over a baseball game like nobody can."

Ohtani was more modest in his own assessment however, adding: "I don't like to self-critique myself in any way. One thing I could say is, overall, balance-wise, I'm having a better season this year than I had last year."

The two-time All-Star's performance dropped the Mariners two games behind Toronto Blue Jays and a half game off the Tampa Bay Rays, leaving them five ahead of the Baltimore Orioles in the final Wild Card spot. The Angels improved to 63-82 in another disappointing year.

Borussia Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl allayed fears Marco Reus could miss the World Cup after the forward sustained an ankle injury against Schalke.

Reus' struggles with injuries are well-documented, and it appeared he had suffered another devastating blow when he came off the field on a stretcher in the first half of Saturday's Revierderby.

The initial outlook for Reus, who was in tears as he left the pitch, was not positive, with Dortmund head coach Edin Terzic telling Sky Sport after the game: "It looks as if the ligaments were injured. Of course, he was very disappointed and was in a lot of pain."

Reus was absent from Germany's victorious 2014 World Cup campaign with another ankle injury, but Kehl is confident he will be fit for the upcoming edition in Qatar.

"It was a shock for us, too, but I can give a little 'all clear'," he told SPORT1. "The examinations showed no fracture, just a lateral ligament injury at the ankle.

"[It is] not so difficult that the World Cup is in danger."

Reus was making his 250th Bundesliga appearance for Dortmund on Saturday, and BVB earned a 1-0 win over their bitter rivals in his absence.

Youssoufa Moukoko's winner – making him the youngest Revierderby goalscorer at 17 years old – gave Dortmund four wins in a row in this fixture for the first time since a run of eight between 1964 and 1967.

Arsenal named 15-year-old Ethan Nwaneri on the bench for their clash with Brentford, where Fabio Vieira will make his first Premier League start due to Martin Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko's absences.

Nwaneri could become the youngest player in Premier League history – surpassing Harvey Elliot's top-flight debut for Fulham, aged just 16 years and 30 days – should he be brought on by Mikel Arteta.

The Gunners were without captain Odegaard after he sustained an injury in training, with Vieira taking his place behind Gabriel Jesus to make his first league start since arriving from Porto in June.

Zinchenko was another absentee with Kieran Tierney in the starting XI at left-back, while Thomas Partey returned from a thigh injury to replace Albert Sambi Lokonga at the base of midfield.

"They are both injured and not available for the game. I don't know [the timescale]," Arteta told Sky Sports before kick-off when asked about Zinchenko and Odegaard. 

"We have the international break right now, so that's going to give us a break. It's two different things, but we don't know yet."

Ben White retained his starting position at right-back despite reports of injury concerns, with Takehiro Tomiyasu on the bench.

Lino Sousa and Reuell Walters were also included in Arteta's youthful matchday squad, and the Arsenal coach acknowledged injury problems have allowed the youngsters a chance to feature.

"We have the opportunity now to bring young players. We had some injuries in the last few weeks, and we are pretty short," the Spaniard added. "But opportunities come when other issues arise."

Arsenal named 15-year-old Ethan Nwaneri on the bench for their clash with Brentford, where Fabio Vieira will make his first Premier League start due to Martin Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko's absences.

Nwaneri could become the youngest player in Premier League history – surpassing Harvey Elliot's top-flight debut for Fulham, aged just 16 years and 30 days – should he be brought on by Mikel Arteta.

The Gunners were without captain Odegaard after he sustained an injury in training, with Vieira taking his place behind Gabriel Jesus to make his first league start since arriving from Porto in June.

Zinchenko was another absentee with Kieran Tierney in the starting XI at left-back, while Thomas Partey returned from a thigh injury to replace Albert Sambi Lokonga at the base of midfield.

"They are both injured and not available for the game. I don't know [the timescale]," Arteta told Sky Sports before kick-off when asked about Zinchenko and Odegaard. 

"We have the international break right now, so that's going to give us a break. It's two different things, but we don't know yet."

Ben White retained his starting position at right-back despite reports of injury concerns, with Takehiro Tomiyasu on the bench.

Lino Sousa and Reuell Walters were also included in Arteta's youthful matchday squad, and the Arsenal coach acknowledged injury problems have allowed the youngsters a chance to feature.

"We have the opportunity now to bring young players. We had some injuries in the last few weeks, and we are pretty short," the Spaniard added. "But opportunities come when other issues arise."

George Kittle's status for the San Francisco 49ers' Week 2 clash with the Seattle Seahawks is up in the air, with conflicting reports over whether he will play.

Pro Bowl tight end Kittle missed the 49ers' shock Week 1 loss to the Chicago Bears with a groin injury.

Kittle returned to practice on Friday, but ESPN's Adam Schefter reported he is not expected to play as the 49ers look to avoid an 0-2 start in Trey Lance's first season as the starting quarterback.

However, NFL Media's Ian Rapoport labelled Kittle as a "game-time decision". According to NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, Kittle is pushing to play despite the 49ers preparing to once again be without him.

The highlight of the early window of games is the NFC South clash between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints.

Tampa Bay will be without one wide receiver as Chris Godwin misses out because of a hamstring injury, but Mike Evans (calf) is expected to play. Veteran Julio Jones (knee) is questionable and the Bucs reportedly do not expect to know if he will be available until pre-game warm-ups.

Running back Leonard Fournette (hamstring) is set to play, but left tackle Donovan Smith is doubtful with an elbow injury.

For the Saints, running back Alvin Kamara is likely to miss out due to a rib injury, but his backup Mark Ingram (ankle) is expected to play, as is quarterback Jameis Winston (back).

In the Sunday night game, the Green Bay Packers are set to welcome back wide receiver Allen Lazard (ankle) for their encounter with the Bears at Lambeau Field.

The New England Patriots are hoping to avoid starting the season 0-2 when they visit the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, and Bill Belichick's team could be in line for a piece of unwanted history should they fail to perform against their AFC rivals.

New England suffered a 20-7 loss the Miami Dolphins in Week 1, Mac Jones and the offense struggling to get anything going as the Patriots' quarterback battled back spasms.

Should they lose by double digits again at Acrisure Stadium, it would mark the first time they have started a season with double-digit losses since losing three straight by that margin to begin the 1969 season.

The bad news for New England is that since Mike Tomlin became Steelers head coach in 2007, nine of the 10 games between Pittsburgh and the Patriots have been decided by at least a touchdown, with the average margin of victory being 14.7 points.

The good news? The Patriots have won seven of those matchups.

Yet the Patriots are hardly in an ideal situation to continue their dominance over the Steelers.

Jones has battled illness this week but is set to play in Pittsburgh. Yet, going against a defense that picked off Joe Burrow four times in the Steelers' season-opening win over the Cincinnati Bengals – their 25th overtime victory since the extra period was implemented in 1974, the third-most in the NFL – he picked a particularly bad week to miss practice time.

The Steelers are without star edge rusher T.J. Watt because of the torn pectoral muscle he suffered in Week 1 but avoiding leaving Pittsburgh having done something no Patriots team has done for 53 years promises to be a difficult challenge for Jones and New England.

Mikel Arteta would have liked the chance to take advice from his former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, but has praised the legacy left behind by the Frenchman in north London.

Wenger, who joined the Gunners from Nagoya Grampus Eight in 1996, led the club over a two-decade-plus period that saw them emerge as one of the leading sides in European football.

Since his exit in 2018, however, he has seldom held a presence around the club, unlike former rival Alex Ferguson who has remained closely involved with Manchester United.

Speaking ahead of his side's Premier League clash with Brentford, Arteta - a two-time FA Cup winner under Wenger during five seasons as a player at Arsenal - acknowledged he wished he could have taken his expertise.

"I would have loved to have had him closer to have the opportunity to open up and in certain periods just listen and learn from him and everything he has been through," he told the Mirror.

"But he did it in a way to make sure that whoever comes after him had the respect and space he believed was important, and he honoured that."

With five wins and just one loss from their first six top-flight games this term, victory against Brentford could catapult Arsenal back to the summit, ahead of Manchester City and Tottenham.

Much of their success has come from the imposing presence of goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, who is anticipated to be in line to start England's Nations League games with Italy and Germany later this month.

With usual Three Lions keeper Jordan Pickford out injured, there is a chance for Ramsdale to stake a claim for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, and Arteta says it would be a fitting prize for his performances.

"I hope [Ramsdale] is the [England] number one, it will be great for us and it will be great for Aaron," he added. "He has shown in the last year or so what he is capable of doing.

"We will be watching and waiting for that decision. Aaron is pretty confident. It would be a good reward for him and what he has done."

Canelo Alvarez confirmed he has his sights set on a rematch with Dmitry Bivol after convincingly handling the third fight of his trilogy against Gennadiy Golovkin on Saturday.

Alvarez took a unanimous decision on the scorecards, although two judges had things much closer than it looked to the naked eye, scoring it seven rounds to five for the Mexican, while the third judge had it eight-to-four.

In one of the most highly anticipated trilogies of this generation, the 40-year-old Golovkin had noticeably lost a step compared to the version of himself that arguably won both of the first two fights, although the first was scored as a draw and he lost a controversial majority decision in the second.

Alvarez is still very much in his prime at 32 years old, and he was physically dominant, boasting a clear speed advantage with his hands and his footwork as he seemingly took each of the first eight rounds without much trouble.

From that point on Alvarez took his foot off the pedal, coasting through the championship rounds while avoiding any dangerous exchanges as he was convinced he had already done enough to bank the decision.

Speaking after his win, Alvarez thanked Golovkin for his part in what will go down as some of the richest fights since the end of the Floyd Mayweather era, with the two competitors splitting a guaranteed $65million for Saturday's outing, and that is before adding in their pay-per-view cuts.

"Thank you so much my friend, thank you Golovkin," he said. "We gave the fans three good fights – thank you for everything.

"Thank you all so much for your support. I've gone through some very difficult things in my life, and the only thing you can do is try to continue moving forward.

"I've gone through difficult times recently with my defeat, and I've actually shown that defeats are great, because it enables you to come back and show humility.

"[Golovkin] is a really good fighter – he's a great fighter, and that's why we're here. I'm glad to share the ring with him, and I'm going to keep moving forward to keep my legacy going strong."

His recent defeat against Bivol was the only loss of Alvarez's career other than his defeat against Floyd Mayweather when he was just 23 years old back in 2013.

After starting his championship-level career at super welterweight (154lbs), Alvarez has continued to rise through the weight classes in search of more world titles.

He jumped up to middleweight (160lbs) in 2015 to defeat Miguel Cotto, before going up again to super middleweight (168lbs) – where he remains now – to dethrone Rocky Fielding in 2018.

In 2019 he made the decision to push things even further, challenging Sergey Kovalev for the light heavyweight title (175lbs), where he struggled with the significant size disadvantage, but came from behind to score a knockout win in the 11th round.

Bivol was his second crack at light heavyweight, and it went very similar to his first try, except this time he could not find a fight-changing blow through 12 rounds of impressive action from the bigger, longer, stronger Bivol.

Despite what was a surprisingly convincing loss, Alvarez made it clear he is determined to avenge the defeat, putting emphasis on the legacy he hopes to leave.

"It's very important for my legacy, for me," he said. "For my pride, for my country, for my family, for everything.

"It's very important... I will beat him."

Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies will miss at least the rest of the regular season after the two-time All-Star broke his right pinky finger sliding head-first into second base in the fourth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night. 

The two-time Silver Slugger Award winner just returned from the 60-day injured list on Friday after missing 81 games due to a fractured left foot, which he suffered on June 13 against the Washington Nationals. 

"I hate it for him because my heart breaks for him," Braves manager Brian Snitker said. "After everything he went through to get back here and then have that happen, God it's horrible for him. He was having so much fun, being the old Oz, playing ball. What he loves to do."

Albies is batting .247 with eight home runs and 35 RBIs in 64 games this season for the defending World Series champion Braves, who beat Philadelphia 4-3 to remain one game behind the first-place New York Mets in the NL East. 

Atlanta is a lock to make the playoffs as they own a 10-and-a-half-game lead over the Phillies for the top wild card spot in the NL.  

Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies will miss at least the rest of the regular season after the two-time All-Star broke his right pinky finger sliding head-first into second base in the fourth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night. 

The two-time Silver Slugger Award winner just returned from the 60-day injured list on Friday after missing 81 games due to a fractured left foot, which he suffered on June 13 against the Washington Nationals. 

"I hate it for him because my heart breaks for him," Braves manager Brian Snitker said. "After everything he went through to get back here and then have that happen, God it's horrible for him. He was having so much fun, being the old Oz, playing ball. What he loves to do."

Albies is batting .247 with eight home runs and 35 RBIs in 64 games this season for the defending World Series champion Braves, who beat Philadelphia 4-3 to remain one game behind the first-place New York Mets in the NL East. 

Atlanta is a lock to make the playoffs as they own a 10-and-a-half-game lead over the Phillies for the top wild card spot in the NL.