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• Sarina Wiegman frustrated over timing of players being released for World Cup

  Sarina Wiegman has expressed her frustration over the uncertainty surrounding England’s World Cup preparations as talks continue regarding the timing of players being released for duty ahead of the tournament.

  The showpiece in Australia and New Zealand gets under way on July 20, and in mid-May, the European Club Association and FIFA announced they had reached an agreement establishing a non-mandatory release period of June 23-29.

  The ECA and FIFA said that timeframe, to act as a guideline for clubs and national associations with exact dates to be agreed between them, “strikes the all-important balance between players having sufficient rest while allowing adequate time to prepare for the World Cup”.

  The plan for England had been to start a pre-tournament camp on June 19, and boss Wiegman, who named her 23-player squad for the World Cup on Wednesday, said: “Of course that’s frustrating because we have all our plans, we thought we were all set and then like a month ago, all of a sudden, things change.

  “We didn’t expect that, and it’s so late. I do understand, it’s about the calendar. It’s really hard. It’s about players having rest. We have to collaborate and talk to each other to try to solve that.

  “But now in a short time like this, we’re all set and a month before we start, it all changes. That’s frustrating and it’s hard too because I think this is not the time to do this. It’s the time to do that later and solve it after this tournament.”

  Wiegman was asked specifically about midfielder Georgia Stanway, who plays for Bayern Munich, and said: “I still hope we negotiate. At this point it’s hard but we’re trying to get the conversation going again.”

  The Dutchwoman said the June 19 plan had been in place since last November, adding: “When we came to these plans, of course we have our principles, the knowledge, the expertise and experience, so we made the plan starting the 19th (of June).

  “We spoke about that with the captains’ group, then with the players. We are in contact with clubs now and it’s very constructive but it’s not finalised yet.

  “When you go to a World Cup, it’s the highest level, the most density, volume, so you have to be at your highest level.

  “We also know that if you have more than two weeks’ rest, which if you would start later on you would have 26 days of no football, that’s not good for the preparation for the players, for the welfare of players that wouldn’t be good. So that’s why we want to start on June 19.

  “It’s not only the physiology, it’s also the decision-making in football and getting really ready to start when we start on the 22nd (of July v Haiti).

  “And knowing we’re going to the other side of the world, that takes a couple of days too. It’s two days of travelling, you can’t start training straight away because we first have to beat the jet-lag, so we really need that time to get prepared, so I just hope that we keep going with the good conversations and we can solve this.”

  England are due to fly to Australia on July 5, and Wiegman also said regarding a warm-up fixture prior to that date: “The reason why we can’t tell you anything about that has to do with when we can start.

  “If we start on June 19 we have enough days to get ready for such a game, but if we start later then you have too short a time to get ready for a fixture.”

• Youri Tielemans confirms Leicester exit

  Youri Tielemans has announced that he is leaving Leicester.

  The 26-year-old joined the Foxes from Monaco on loan in 2019 before signing a permanent deal on a four-year contract.

  Tielemans is out of contract this summer and his departure comes after Leicester were relegated from the Premier League on the final day of the season on Sunday.

  Their relegation came just seven years after being crowned Premier League champions and two seasons since winning the FA Cup against Chelsea, where Tielemans scored a stunning goal to seal victory.

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  A post shared by Youri Tielemans (@youritielemans)

   

  “Dear Leicester fans, after four and a half special years and with a lot of gratitude I’m bidding farewell to this incredible club,” the Belgium international said in a video on Instagram.

  “From the first day I set foot on this ground, your warmth and passion embraced me.

  “Victory and triumph, love, hope and even defeat, we’ve shared many special moments together.

  “I am forever grateful for your unwavering support, thank you to Khun Top, the board, the staff, the players and fans for having given me and my family a home.

  “This is not a goodbye, but a heartfelt farewell. With pride, love and eternal gratitude, Youri Tielemans.”

• We’ve got to believe we can pull off a miracle – Inverness captain Sean Welsh

  Captain Sean Welsh has told his Inverness team-mates they have to believe they can pull off “a miracle” in what will be the biggest game of his career this Saturday.

  The cinch Championship side are big underdogs for their Scottish Cup final showdown with Celtic, who are bidding to complete a domestic treble.

  Welsh knows it will take a huge effort to pull off an upset at Hampden but the 33-year-old is adamant his team have a chance.

  “It ranks at the very top for me,” said the former Partick Thistle and Falkirk midfielder when asked about the size of the game in the context of his career.

  “It’s not very often you get to play on an occasion like this, especially at my age getting to the latter stages of my career. I am thoroughly looking forward to it.

  “We’ve got to believe, I’ve said that to the lads all week. We’ve got to believe we can pull off a miracle.

  “We don’t just want to go there for a day out and get caught up in the occasion.

  “We know it’s a massive challenge in front of us, but we’ve got to have belief in ourselves.

  “We know we have a good group and we know we are going to be up against it at times in the game but we’ve got to stick together and have that belief that we can do it.”

  Celtic won only two of their closing six Premiership matches as they had the title wrapped up with time to spare, but Welsh dismissed any notion that his team can draw encouragement from the champions’ recent form dip.

  “I don’t think you can look too much into that,” he added.

  “They wrapped up the title early doors and then had a few results they probably weren’t happy with but you saw at the weekend (when they beat Aberdeen 5-0) they can turn it on when they need to. I’m sure they’ll be right up for this.

  “It’s not going to make much difference to us, we know how hard the challenge is going to be.”

  Inverness will have gone more than four weeks without a competitive game by the time they run out at Hampden on Saturday.

  Although Welsh admits it is “not ideal” in terms of maintaining match sharpness, he feels the month-long break has at least allowed them to banish any lingering disappointment after they lost to Ayr in their final Championship fixture and missed out on the play-offs.

  “It was good to get some time to get over what happened in the last game of the season,” he said.

  “That was a difficult night and we were all very disappointed to miss out on the play-offs so the time away was good for us to clear our minds and get over it.

  “We didn’t want that lingering going into this massive game.

  “We’ve come back in refreshed and excited and we’re looking forward to it.”