Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Wilson ramps it up in Steelers practice but still no timetable on return
PITTSBURGH | Russell Wilson is back to practicing at full speed. When the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback will get back to actually playing is another matter.
And the eventual answer might have little do to with his health.
While Wilson stressed Thursday the calf injury that’s sidelined him for the opening month of the season is improving, he stopped short of saying he would be available as the backup to Justin Fields on Sunday night when the Steelers (3-1) host the Dallas Cowboys (2-2).
“We’re listening to the doctors, listening to coach and just trying to make sure that they’re good and I’m good,” Wilson said.
The 35-year-old initially hurt the calf when training camp began in late July. He tweaked it on Sept. 5 and the Steelers have been cautious about bringing him along slowly. He spent multiple weeks as a limited participant in practice. On Thursday, the nine-time Pro Bowler went live during 11-on-11 drills for the first time in a month.
“I feel strong, you know, I feel confident,” Wilson said. “I love the process that we’ve (had) in just in terms of just making sure that I’m really ready to go. And, you know, I feel like I’m right there.”
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said earlier this week the team will evaluate Wilson’s “ability to move and function and protect himself” before figuring out when he might be ready to go.
The more looming question for Tomlin — one he has declined to answer in any detail — is what will happen whenever Wilson is given the OK to play. Fields has performed well in Wilson’s absence, leading Pittsburgh to its best start since 2020, drawing praise from both Tomlin and first-year offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
Fields’ best game of the season — statistically anyway — was last Sunday’s loss to Indianapolis, in which he led three second-half touchdown drives that nearly rallied the Steelers from a 17-deficit.
“I thought in that second half what was cool to watch as a coach and a play-caller when somebody gets in that kind of flow, he damn near took the game over,” Smith said. “When that happens and you feel it with a player, it doesn’t matter what I called. You felt him rolling.”
Fields finished with 367 total yards (312 passing and 55 rushing) and three touchdowns (two rushing, one passing), the highest total yardage output by a Steelers quarterback in nearly six years.
Still, Tomlin largely has brushed off questions on who will be atop the depth chart when Wilson is at full strength. While Tomlin acknowledged Fields could potentially be named the full-time starter — a position Wilson has held since he signed with the Steelers in mid-March — he has stressed repeatedly there’s no need to choose because Wilson remains unavailable.
The time when Wilson will be available seems to be fast approaching, though Fields — whose 98.0 QB rating is well above his career average of 82.3 — insists he doesn’t feel like there’s still more to prove to Tomlin. The way Fields looks at it, he has no real power in the situation, so there’s no need to get worked up over it.
“I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing and whatever decision (Tomlin) makes, he makes,” Fields said. “I can only control what I do on the field. Now I’m just going to go out there and keep doing what I’m doing.”
Browns RB Chubb says return from knee surgery like ‘a dream’
BEREA, Ohio | Those first moments for Nick Chubb back on the field, back among his Browns teammates, were astounding.
“It didn’t feel real,” Chubb said. “It felt like a dream.”
More than a year after Chubb’s left knee was wrecked on a routine running play for the second time, the Pro Bowl back returned to practice this week, a major step in a comeback few doubted would happen.
“I feel like I’ve been up and battling this for a while now,” Chubb said Thursday, adding his surgically repaired knee withstood his first workout. “It was great to get all that off my shoulders and finally get back out there.”
Back in his No. 24 jersey and orange helmet, Chubb practiced Wednesday for the first time since undergoing surgery after he got hurt on a hit in Week 2 last season at Pittsburgh. The 28-year-old needed two operations to repair two ligaments, meniscus and his medial capsule.
He’s been working his way back since. Running. Lifting weights. Doing all he can to get as close as possible to being Nick Chubb, game-breaking back.
He still doesn’t know if that’s possible.
“I guess we’ll all find out at the same time,” he told reporters.
Chubb won’t play this week against Washington, but there’s a chance he could be active for next week’s game at Philadelphia. In designating him to return to practice, the Browns (1-3) have a 21-day window to add him to the roster.
Chubb has his own timeline to when he’ll play.
“Whenever I feel good,” he said.
He’s looked good, like himself, during the portion of practice open to media members. But Chubb knows there is nothing that can replicate being in a game, when his knee will be tested to the maximum.
This is nothing new for Chubb, who tore ligaments in the same knee while playing at Georgia in 2015.
At some point, he’s going to take a hard hit on the knee. He’s unafraid.
“Once you get out there and you’re running around, it’s like you’re 8 years old again,” said Chubb, who has rushed for 6,511 yards and scored 48 touchdowns. “It’s like riding a bike. That’s not something that’s in my head. I mean, you can’t control that.
“I’m going to go out there and play fast.”
It’s been a rough start to the season for Cleveland, especially on offense as injuries, penalties and mistakes have contributed to three losses in four games.
Wide receiver Amari Cooper said Chubb’s return came at the perfect time.
“Huge emotional boost,” Cooper said. “When you have a dominant run game that’s really important in this league, to have the type of running back that could turn a crack into a hole, truthfully. And so it’d be a huge addition to have him back in both practice and in the games.
“Everybody around here is excited for that.”
Augusta chairman confident Masters will go on
Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley said Thursday he was confident the Masters would be held as scheduled in April as the club directs its attention and resources to helping the area recover from devastating damage from Hurricane Helene.
Augusta National and the Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area announced a joint $5 million donation to a fund providing essential services throughout the greater Augusta area.
Ridley was a few days late arriving in Japan for the Asia-Pacific Amateur. He said the home of the Masters sustained “a lot of damage,” just like the rest of the Georgia city on the border with South Carolina.
“We’ve had literally dozens of people working at the club and what I’ve really been the most proud of is while everyone certainly is focused on getting us back up and running, our employees have been so focused on the community at large,” Ridley said at a news conference to kick off the Asia-Pacific Amateur.
“As far as the golf course, it really was affected just as the rest of the community was,” he said. “There was a lot of damage. We have a lot of people working hard to get us back up and running. We don’t really know exactly what that’s going to mean but I can tell if you it’s humanly possible, we’ll be back in business sooner rather than later.”
More than 180 people have been killed from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Florida’s Big Bend region and caused enormous damage as it move through Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.
The Masters is scheduled for April 10-13. The club has resources that allow for rebuilding and even creating new structures in short time. It is closed during the summer and was not scheduled to reopen until mid-October. The club did not say if that had been delayed.
“I’m confident … that the Masters will be held, it will be held on the dates that it’s scheduled to be held, and I think we have a few announcements to make with respect to that project. So stay tuned,” Ridley said.
He also said the club, CSRA and the Medical College of Georgia Foundation have made separate contributions to support recovery efforts led by the American Red Cross.
“We have been able to take care of our employees but we’ve also been focused on what the Red Cross and other organizations are doing at Augusta,” Ridley said. “And our employees have really been a big part of that, which I think really speaks for them and the culture at the club.”
Gauff rallies against qualifier to reach
China Open semis
BEIJING | Sixth-ranked Coco Gauff again made a slow start and had to rally to beat Ukrainian qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 to make the China Open semifinals on Thursday for a second straight year.
Gauff will next play Paula Badosa of Spain, who ended local wild card Zhang Shuai’s unexpected run at the title.
The No. 115-ranked Yuliia Starodubtseva — who will crack the top 100 for the first time on Monday — had not lost a set in her three matches this week and quickly took the lead, making 10 winners and holding Gauff to zero in an error-strewn first set for the American.
Gauff also lost the first set against Naomi Osaka in the previous round before Osaka retired because of a lower back injury.
Starodubtseva last month became the first woman in the Open era to qualify for all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year, and former U.S. Open champion Gauff found a response against her.
Gauff saved two break points in her opening service game of the second set. A service break propelled her ahead 3-1. After another narrow escape on her next service game, Gauff lost only three more games for the rest of the quarterfinal.
“I can’t control how I play or how she plays, but I can just try to control my mindset and commit to the process,” Gauff said.
Zhang’s drought-busting week came to a shuddering halt as Badosa continued her own resurgence in a 6-1, 7-6 (4) victory in their quarterfinal.
The Spaniard has won 28 of her last 35 matches dating to May and made the semifinals of three of her past five tournaments. There was also a run to the U.S. Open quarterfinals last month.
But the story of the week has been the 35-year-old Zhang, who entered the China Open on a 24-match losing streak — the second longest in the Open era — and ranked No. 595. She didn’t drop a set in four previous matches this week.
The Chinese wild card had no answer, though, to Badosa’s fast start as the Spaniard made three service breaks to comfortably claim the opening set.
It was much closer in the second set as Badosa found herself down 3-1. She rallied and edged Zhang in the tiebreak.
Shanghai Masters
Italy’s Matteo Berrettini bounced back from the disappointment of an injury ending his Japan Open last week by squeezing past Christopher O’Connell 7-6, (9) 7-6 (6) in the Shanghai first round.
The Italian, who retired with an abdominal injury in the second round in Tokyo last Friday, had his fitness given a stern examination by the Australian in a lung-busting match lasting two hours, 13 minutes.
Next up for the former Wimbledon finalist is No. 14-ranked Holger Rune.
Other first-round winners included Marcos Giron, David Goffin, Jaume Munar, Zhou Yi, Jakub Mensik and Miomir Kecmanovic.
The 32 seeded players received a first-round bye, including top-ranked Jannik Sinner and second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, who won the China Open against the Italian on Wednesday. Sinner starts against Taro Daniel of Japan, and Alcaraz faces Shang Juncheng of China.
FIFA opts not to suspend Israel but will investigate claims of discrimination
ZURICH | FIFA stopped short of suspending the Israeli soccer federation on Thursday, but asked for a disciplinary investigation of possible discrimination alleged by Palestinian soccer officials.
A senior FIFA panel overseeing governance will separately investigate “the participation in Israeli competitions of Israeli football teams allegedly based in the territory of Palestine,” soccer’s governing body said after a meeting of its ruling Council.
The Palestinian soccer federation has consistently asked FIFA for more than a decade to take action against the Israeli soccer body for incorporating teams from West Bank settlements in its leagues.
The compromise decisions came more than four months after Palestinian officials had urged FIFA to suspend Israel’s membership at a meeting in May.
The request to FIFA’s congress in May also cited “international law violations” in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflict and directed the soccer body to its statutory commitments on human rights and against discrimination.
FIFA delayed making a decision in May until after a legal review scheduled for July, then pushed back the issue two more times until a meeting of its 37-member Council on Thursday.
“The FIFA Council has implemented due diligence on this very sensitive matter and, based on a thorough assessment, we have followed the advice of the independent experts,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement.
Ahead of the meeting, Palestinian soccer federation leader Jibril Rajoub and its vice president Susan Shalabi came to Zurich to lobby FIFA officials.
“I trust and I expect that FIFA will take the right decision,” Rajoub told The Associated Press. “I am asking for the Council to follow their statutes.”
The latest process follows a pattern — under Infantino and his predecessor Sepp Blatter — of Palestinian requests for FIFA to uphold its legal rules and the question then being steered toward ad hoc panels and other committees.
FIFA gave no timetable Thursday for the investigations it has now requested.
Supporters of the Palestinian soccer campaign have criticized FIFA for not following its decision in 2022 to suspend Russian national teams from its competitions within days of the military invasion of Ukraine. European soccer body UEFA also removed Russian teams.
Several European federations had already refused to play scheduled games against Russia, including Poland and its captain Robert Lewandowski. They said they would not go to Moscow for a World Cup qualifying playoff in March 2022.
FIFA later successfully argued at the Court of Arbitration for Sport that keeping Russian teams in its competitions would cause chaos and be a security risk. Russian teams have not played in World Cups, European Championships or the Champions League for more than 2 1/2 years.
In the case of Israel, which has been a member of UEFA for 30 years, no European federation has refused to play its national or clubs teams. Israeli teams have played home games in neutral countries such as Hungary and Cyprus for security reasons since the Hamas attacks one year ago.
The Palestinian men’s national team is currently playing in the Asian qualifying program for the 2026 World Cup, hosting Jordan three weeks ago in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The team next plays at Iraq on Oct. 10 and hosts Kuwait five days later in Doha, Qatar.
—From AP reports
