Sam Burns shot a second round 61 as he took a one-shot halfway lead at The American Express tournament in California.

Burns’ career-low round leaves him on 17 under par, one shot ahead of fellow American Michael Kim with South Korean’s KH Lee and American amateur Nick Dunlap a further shot back.

A pair of eagles and seven birdies had put Burns in with a chance of breaking 60, but he could only par the last two holes.

Dunlap, who plays at the University of Alabama, fired a 65 at the Stadium Course – one of three being used for the tournament – to follow his opening 64.

A group of six, including American Ryder Cup star Patrick Cantlay and joint overnight leader Alex Noren of Sweden, sit on 14 under par.

Ireland’s Shane Lowry shot a second round of 67 to lie seven shots off the lead.

Jurgen Klopp has opened the door for Sven-Goran Eriksson to spend the day as Liverpool manager.

Eriksson revealed earlier this month that he had in a “best case” scenario around a year to live after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

During a round of TV interviews upon revealing his health issues, former England boss Eriksson disclosed his lifelong love for Liverpool and how he always wished to be manager of the club.

Robbie Fowler, who played under Eriksson for England, hinted on X, formerly know as Twitter, that a call had been made for the 75-year-old Swede to manage a Liverpool Legends team at Anfield in 2024, but the current Reds boss has gone a step further.

“I don’t know him, unfortunately not,” Klopp was quoted as saying in various newspapers.

“I know him without knowing him, we never met.

“Yes, it was obviously very touching news when you heard about it. I heard for the first time about his admiration or love for Liverpool and that he was a fan for his whole life.

“So, I heard now about the legends match and stuff like that. I’m not in charge of that so I can’t say anything about that.

“The only thing I can say is absolutely he’s very welcome to come here and he can sit in my seat in my office and do my job for a day if he wants. That’s no problem.

“Being on the sideline might be a little bit more difficult. To have him here and show him everything and how this wonderful club developed over the years, I think that’s definitely something we will tell him.

“He can come over and have a few wonderful hours here, I’m sure.”

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp will breath a sigh of relief at the news the hamstring injury Mohamed Salah suffered at the Africa Cup of Nations is only a strain and nothing more significant.

Salah sparked fears of a potentially lengthy lay-off after limping off in the first half of Thursday’s 2-2 draw with Ghana.

However, the results of a scan have revealed a muscle strain which Egypt say will rule the Liverpool striker out of their next two games.

That means the 31-year-old will definitely miss Egypt’s final Group B fixture against already-qualified Cape Verde on Monday and, if they progress from Group B, their last-16 tie as well.

“The X-rays that Mohamed Salah, the captain of the Egyptian national team, underwent, showed that he suffered a hamstring strain,” an Egyptian Football Association statement read.

“And he will miss the team’s next two matches in the Africa Cup of Nations against Cape Verde, and then the round of 16 match in the event of qualification.”

Egypt are currently second in Group B after two draws with Mozambique and Ghana and will face leaders Cape Verde knowing only a victory will guarantee their passage into the knockout stages.

Salah will be restricted to a watching role and it could also be the case for a potential last-16 tie at the end of January, but Liverpool manager Klopp will be pleased the injury to his forward is not set to be a long-term issue.

Earlier on Friday, Klopp had earlier admitted his shock at Salah’s injury taking into account the forward’s impeccable fitness record.

In six and a half seasons since arriving at Anfield, Salah has missed just 10 Premier League matches – one of which was due to Covid-19 and another because of concussion.

So the sight of Salah being forced off just before half-time unsurprisingly set alarm bells ringing.

“In the moment it was a shock. He felt it and we all know how rarely Mo needs to go off so there was definitely something,” said Klopp.

“I don’t have any more information right now. I spoke with him last night. They are doing further assessments and then we will know more.”

While Liverpool did not expect Salah to return until early next month, any absence from their talisman would be a blow as they seek to maintain top spot in the Premier League.

They head to Bournemouth on Sunday looking to extend their advantage to five points but will do so without a number of players.

Wataru Endo is at the Asian Cup with Japan while full-backs Andy Robertson (shoulder), Trent Alexander-Arnold (knee) and Kostas Tsimikas (collarbone), midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai (hamstring), Thiago Alcantara (hip), Stefan Bajcetic (adductor) and Ben Doak (knee) and defender Joel Matip (ACL) are all at various stages in their recovery.

Robertson, Alexander-Arnold and Szoboszlai are closest to a return but the earliest will be Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Fulham.

“They’re all positive but not ready. They’re all getting closer and closer and closer and some of them might be in team training next week but for the Bournemouth game I don’t expect anyone back,” said Klopp.

“After Bournemouth maybe for Fulham we will see how the boys do, but they are all close. Trent close, Dom close, Robbo close.”

Egypt have allayed serious injury fears over Liverpool attacker Mohamed Salah, but their captain’s Africa Cup of Nations could still be over.

Salah was forced off in the first half of Egypt’s 2-2 draw with Ghana on Thursday after he sustained a muscle injury and it sparked concerns from both an international and club football point of view.

Salah was sent for scans and the results have shown a strain in his posterior muscle, which is set to rule the forward out of Egypt’s final Group B fixture and a potential last-16 tie for a nation that finished runners-up in the 2021 edition.

“The x-rays that Mohamed Salah, the captain of the Egyptian national team, underwent, showed that he suffered a strain in the posterior muscle,” an Egyptian Football Association statement read.

“And he will miss the team’s next two matches in the African Nations against Cape Verde, and then the round of 16 match in the event of qualification.”

Egypt are currently second in Group B after two draws with Mozambique and Ghana and will face leaders Cape Verde on January 22 knowing only a victory will guarantee their passage into the knockout stages.

Salah will be restricted to a watching role and it could also be the case for a potential last-16 tie at the end of January, but Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp will breath a sigh of relief at the news the injury to his forward is only a strain and nothing more significant.

The Las Vegas Raiders are close to a deal that would remove the interim tag from Antonio Pierce’s title and make him the franchise’s next head coach, multiple media outlets reported Friday.

The move to stick with Pierce comes amid a pivotal coaching carousel cycle with former Patriots legend Bill Belichick and the University of Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh representing the top prizes.

Pierce, however, went 5-4 after he replaced Josh McDaniels mid-season, and many of the Raiders’ best players – including Davante Adams, Maxx Crosby and Josh Jacobs – have publicly lobbied to keep Pierce.

Last weekend, a report surfaced that Crosby would seek a trade if Pierce wasn’t hired as the team’s full-time head coach.

“Why wouldn’t we keep going the direction we’re going?” Crosby said after the Raiders’ final game. “The fact we’ve come together and done something special in such a short time is hard to do.

“We’ve got a guy who’s played at the highest level, won a Super Bowl, he’s been a captain, and now he’s a great coach and he’s a leader.”

Pierce, 45, played nine seasons in the NFL for Washington and the New York Giants. He was a starter on the Giants team that won Super Bowl XLII, beating the previously undefeated New England Patriots.

Among Pierce’s first decisions will be whether to retain interim offensive coordinator Bo Hardegree.

The Raiders face a crossroads at quarterback after Jimmy Garoppolo’s forgettable season. Rookie Aidan O’Connell finished the season as the team’s starter and had eight touchdowns with no interceptions in his last four games.

Las Vegas will also need to decide on the future of running back Josh Jacobs, who ended last summer’s contract dispute after training camp by signing a one-year deal.

“With AP, I am definitely 100 percent in,” Jacobs told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. “However it looks, whatever it looks like.”

The Raiders hold the 13th overall pick in April’s draft as they look to return to their title-winning past.

The Houston Astros have agreed to a five-year, $95 million contract with five-time All-Star closer Josh Hader that will be the largest in present-day value for a relief pitcher in MLB history, multiple outlets reported Friday.

Hader's new deal will technically surpass the six-year, $102 million contract the New York Mets gave closer Edwin Diaz in November 2022, as Diaz's pact includes deferred payments that lowers its present-day value to around $93.2 million.

The bold move also gives the Astros potentially one of the game's most dominant back ends of the bullpen by teaming Hader, a three-time winner of the Trevor Hoffman Award honouring the National League's best reliever, with two-time All-Star Ryan Pressly.

Hader is coming off an outstanding 2023 season with the San Diego Padres in which the left-hander recorded 33 saves and a 1.28 earned run average while striking out 85 batters in 56 1/3 innings.

The 29-year-old has averaged 15.01 strikeouts per nine innings over the course of his seven major league seasons, the highest rate in MLB history among pitchers with at least 350 career innings pitched. Diaz ranks second at 14.81 per nine innings.

Hader also returns to an organisation he was a part of from 2013-15 as a minor leaguer, though he didn't make his major league debut until after being traded by the Astros to the Milwaukee Brewers in July 2015.

The hard-throwing lefty had a dominant six-year run in Milwaukee, making four NL All-Star teams and winning the Hoffman Award in 2018, 2019 and 2021 while helping the Brewers to four consecutive post-season appearances from 2018-21.

Milwaukee traded Hader to the Padres during the 2022 deadline in a surprising move, and he struggled with his new team over the remainder of that season before bouncing back with a strong 2023 campaign.

Hader has recorded 165 career saves along with a 20-21 record and a 2.50 ERA in 349 major league appearances, all in relief.

The signing is the first major move of the offseason for the Astros as they attempt to keep pace with the in-state and American League West rival Texas Rangers.

Houston reached the World Series four times in a six-year span from 2017-22 but was ousted by Texas in seven games in this past season's AL Championship Series, with the Rangers going on to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks and capture the franchise's first World Series title. 

Teenage sensation Luke Littler powered his way past three-times world champion Michael Van Gerwen to claim his first senior PDC title on a perfect day at the Bahrain Masters.

The 16-year-old, who lost to Luke Humphries in the World Darts Championship final earlier this month after a thrilling run which catapulted him into the limelight, beat the world number two to seal an 8-5 victory after earlier producing a nine-dart finish and a maximum 170 check-out.

Asked afterwards what he had just achieved, the teenager who beat Nathan Aspinall in the last eight and Gerwyn Price to reach the final, told ITV4: “You tell me. I don’t know. I’m happy to win.”

Marseille striker Ismaila Sarr starred as defending Africa Cup of Nations champions Senegal eased their way into the last 16 with a 3-1 win over Cameroon.

Sarr’s deflected strike gave his side a 16th-minute lead and it was he who set up fellow frontman Habib Diallo after the break before Sadio Mane cemented victory at Stade Charles Konan Banny in stoppage time to guarantee his side’s progression from Group C.

Cameroon responded belatedly when Jean-Charles Castelletto powered home a header from Olivier Ntcham’s 83rd-minute cross and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou has guilty of a glaring miss before Mane scored, but Rigobert Song’s men will head into Tuesday’s final group fixture against Gambia with just a single point to their name.

Senegal went ahead after the Cameroon defence failed to deal with Pape Sarr’s 16th-minute corner.

The ball was fed back in to Sarr after goalkeeper Andre Onana had punched it to the edge of the box and he drilled in a low right-footed shot which took a slight deflection off Frank Anguissa and flew into the net.

The Indomitable Lions did not muster a single attempt on goal in the opening 45 minutes and might have fallen further behind six minutes before the break but for Enzo Tchato’s block after Lamine Camara had put Mane in on goal.

Aliou Cisse’s men continued to make the running after the restart, but Olivier Kemen got a sight of goal at the other end, only to loop his 55th-minute header from a deep free-kick high over.

Cameroon’s fortunes took a further turn for the worse with 19 minutes remaining when Sarr turned provider with a low cross for Habib Diallo to make it 2-0 from close range.

Castelletto gave Song’s side hope with seven minutes remaining and they should have been level when Nkoudou headed inexplicably wide in injury time before Mane wrapped up the points.

Teenage sensation Luke Littler started with a nine-darter as he dispatched Nathan Aspinall in the quarter-finals of the Bahrain Masters before brushing aside Gerwyn Price to reach the final.

The 16-year-old World Championship runner-up needed just three visits in the opening leg against fellow Englishman Aspinall.

Littler’s first three darts found the treble 20 bed and he repeated the feat on his return before a seventh dart set up a treble 19, double 12 finish.

The teenager was playing in just his second PDC event after becoming the youngest player to reach World Championship final at Alexandra Palace, where he eventually lost to Luke Humphries, earlier this month.

Littler won the second leg against the darts to take a 2-0 lead, only for Aspinall to break back in the third and then hold to make it 2-2.

However, Littler was not to be denied and eventually ran out a 6-3 winner with a 116 check-out to book a last-four showdown with former world champion Price.

There were further fireworks when the youngster, who turns 17 next week, returned to action, landing a maximum 170 finish on his way to a 7-3 semi-final victory over Price, who himself hit 124 and 146 check-outs as he attempted to keep pace.

Hearts have decided to terminate the season-long loan deal of Rangers midfielder Alex Lowry.

The 20-year-old moved to Tynecastle at the start of August in search of more regular game time but he struggled to nail down a starting berth in Steven Naismith’s team.

Lowry made 17 appearances in total for the Jambos but only 12 as a starter. His best moment in a maroon jersey came in late September when he scored a late winner away to Kilmarnock in the Viaplay Cup.

The Ibrox academy graduate, who has been troubled by a back issue recently, started only two of Hearts’ last eight matches before the winter break.

The Tynecastle club were unable to guarantee him the game time he needs to accelerate his development and have taken the decision to send him back to Ibrox prematurely.

“We took the decision to end the loan with Alex’s best interests in mind,” Naismith told Hearts’ website on Friday evening.

“There is absolutely no doubting Alex’s talents as a player and he’s shown in periods what he’s capable of doing on the pitch.

“But with the competition for places fierce in our squad, he’s probably not going to get the game time that would allow him to develop further, which is one of the reasons he was here in the first place.

“I’ve no doubt he’ll go on to become a top player. He’s a great boy, we thank him for all his efforts at Hearts and wish him well for the future.”

Rangers are now likely to look for another club for Lowry to join for the remainder of the campaign.

The midfielder made a big impact when he burst into the Rangers first team under Giovanni Van Bronckhorst two years ago and he was rewarded in May 2022 with a new contract until the summer of 2025, but so far he has failed to kick on the way the Ibrox club hoped.

Mauritania boss Amir Abdou feels his players will not be downhearted by the “injustice” of their opening Africa Cup of Nations defeat when they come up against Angola.

The Lions of Chinguetti lost 1-0 to Burkina Faso in heartbreaking fashion as Bertrand Traore’s penalty in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage-time condemned them to a Group D defeat.

“It was a bit of injustice to us as the boys gave everything, they followed instructions,” head coach Abdou said ahead of Mauritania’s second group game in Bouake.

“Our performance dropped in the second half because of the heat and there was a lot of suffering.

“We are not going to slumber in sorrow. We need to move on from this and prepare ourselves for the next game, which is against Angola.”

Angola began their AFCON campaign with a 1-1 draw against two-time winners Algeria, extending their unbeaten run to six games.

Head coach Pedro Goncalves said: “This team started slowly but we managed to find some spaces and came back into the game in the second half, which the team did better.

“The work isn’t done. The team showed that mentally they are up there so we will continue to build on this in our next matches.”

Mauritania, who are without a win in five games, could be without Aboubakar Kamara.

The former Fulham striker, who now plays for Al Jazira in the UAE Pro League, had to be replaced after 28 minutes against Burkina Faso after sustaining an injury.

Angola could hand a start to Mabululu after the striker came off the bench to score against Algeria.

Teenage sensation Luke Littler started with a nine-darter as he moved into the semi-finals of the Bahrain Masters with a 6-3 win over Nathan Aspinall.

The 16-year-old World Championship runner-up needed just three visits in the opening leg against fellow Englishman Aspinall.

Littler’s first three darts found the treble 20 bed and he repeated the feat on his return before a seventh dart set up a treble 19, double 12 finish.

The teenager was playing in just his second PDC event after becoming the youngest player to reach World Championship final at Alexandra Palace, where he eventually lost to Luke Humphries, earlier this month.

Littler won the second leg against the darts to take a 2-0 lead, only for Aspinall to break back in the third and then hold to make it 2-2.

However, Littler was not to be denied and eventually ran out a 6-3 winner with a 116 check-out to book a last-four showdown with former world champion Gerwyn Price.