Keepers injured CHELSEA keeper Petr Cech has undergone surgery for a depressed fracture of the skull after he was injured during the Blues' 1-0 win at Reading. The 24-year-old collided with Reading's Stephen Hunt in the first minute of the game at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday. His replacement Carlo Cudicini was also carried off during the game and was also immediately taken to hospital after colliding with Sonko. Cudicini was discharged on Saturday night after being knocked unconscious in injury time. A Chelsea statement said: "Chelsea have reviewed the video of both incidents. "We endorse the post-match comments of [Chelsea manager] Jose Mourinho regarding the seriousness of these incidents. Chelsea will be writing to the Football Association with our observations." Reading boss Steve Coppell said he was confident neither Hunt nor Sonko were deliberately trying to hurt the Chelsea keepers. Chelsea will play with third-choice keeper Hilario, 31, who joined Chelsea on a free transfer in June from Portuguese side Nacional but has yet to make his debut for the Premiership champions. Racial taunts ZIMBABWE's Mike Temwanjira was the subject of fierce abuse while playing for Serbian side Borac. Belgrade media reported that fans in the central Serbian city of Cacak racially abused the striker at a first division match on Saturday. Borac fans wore white hoods with Ku Klux Klan insignia and held a banner saying "Go away because nobody likes you" during the match against Vozdovac Belgrade. Fans were reported to have raised their arms in a Nazi salute, and the match was held up for 10 minutes as police intervened to arrest 37 offenders for spreading racial intolerance. Temwanjira, a former Zimbabwe international, has scored twice for Borac this season. Borac lost 1-0 on Saturday. A Confederation final TWO goals from Mohamed Ali Nafkha earned Etoile Sahel a place in next month's African Confederation Cup final as they beat Tunisian rivals Esperance 3-1 to finish atop Group B. Nafkha opened the scoring for Etoile in the 16th minute before Seifallah Mahjoubi equalised for hosts Esperance just two minutes later. Etoile wrapped up the game and a place in the Confederation Cup final with a second goal for Nafkha in the 61st minute and one from Yassine Chikhaoui with nine minutes left in the game. The win means that Etoile also maintain their 100 per cent record in the group phase of the competition. The final will be Etoile's third successive continental club competition final, but they have lost in the last two African Champions League deciders. It was the first match in charge of Esperance's new French coach Jacky Dugueperoux. In Group A, Olympic Khouribga beat their Moroccan rivals FAR Rabat 2-0 to deny the army team a place in the final of the Confederation Cup. Khouribga's victory came thanks to goals from Saleh Falah and youngster Yusef Ougane and keeps them in with a chance of reaching the final. FAR, who are the defending champions, needed a win to ensure themselves of a place in the final. Meanwhile Petro Atletico thrashed their Angolan rivals InterClube 4-1 in the other Group A match to keep alive their slim hopes of reaching the Confederation Cup final. Manucho scored a hat-trick with Mabina adding the other goal for Petro. InterClube's consolation was scored from the penalty spot by Peter. The results mean that FAR are still top of the group with 10 points, Khouribga are second with nine points and Petro are third with eight points, while InterClube are bottom without a single point. The final round of matches is in two weeks time and will decide who wins the group to advance to the final against Etoile Sahel. The last group matches see InterClube host Khouribga while FAR are at home to Petro. New China coach FORMER Ghana coach Ratomir Dujkovic has been appointed coach of China's Olympic team, according to media reports in the country. His appointment was confirmed this week during a two-day meeting of Chinese Football Association (CFA) officials and will be announced after being ratified by China's Sport Ministry, the Beijing News said. However, the CFA is yet to confirm the appointment officially because Dujkovic's contract has not yet been settled and his appointment not yet reported to the General Administration of Sports. Dujkovic is to fly to Beijing on 20 October to sign a contract, but is unlikely to coach China against Japan in a friendly in Tokyo five days later, the paper said. Dujkovic, 60, led Ghana to the second round of the World Cup finals earlier this year and has also coached the national teams of Venezuela, Myanmar and Rwanda. Youngest champ MICHAEL van Gerwen became the youngest winner of a major darts event when he beat England captain Martin Adams at the World Masters in Bridlington. The 17-year-old from The Netherlands trailed 5-2 before reeling off five straight sets for a 7-5 win. "I feel great," he said. "It's a nice tournament with nice players and one of the most difficult in the world to win. I needed to break Martin's throw and I did. I was still confident because that's darts - you can always win." Van Gerwen had earlier beaten Mark Webster of Wales 6-3 in the semi-finals, while Adams thrashed Steve Farmer 6-0. In the final, Adams had two darts to go 5-1 up at the interval but missed and his teenaged opponent took full advantage. "On one of the important doubles near the end I heard a high- pitched whistle, which apparently was an alarm in the building," said world number one Adams. "You can't throw at a double when that's going on." Adams added: "Take nothing away from Michael, he's a great little player. He's got great tenacity and has a great future in the sport, without a doubt." Hoogenband to retire DUTCH swimming star Pieter van den Hoogenband will retire after the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. "I will be 30 by then, and I have had a lot of fun," he said. "But my career will be closed at the next Olympics." The Dutchman will be chasing his third straight 100m freestyle gold in China and holds the world mark of 47.84secs. But he warned fewer records will be broken in Beijing if the swimming finals are moved to the morning at the request of US broadcasters. He told Melbourne's Sunday Herald newspaper: "We love our sport and to have people following you on TV is nice, but don't forget what swimming is all about. "It's about good races and breaking records, and if we cannot do our best performance because we have to swim our finals when we should be swimming heats we are on the wrong track. "I love tradition and I love the history of our sport. You have legends, and you know the programme in swimming, it has been there for a long time. I think it's very bad to do something because people are paying more money." Gymnastics qualification DEFENDING team champions China maintained their lead to take top spot in the men's qualifying at next year's World Gymnastics Championships in Denmark. China finished ahead of Olympic champions Japan, who were led by all-round title holder Hiroyuki Tomita. But there was disaster for the US who could only finish 13th, missing out on a place in the eight-team final. Great Britain slipped down to 19th but still managed to secure a place at the World Championships. The Americans, the 2004 Olympic silver medallists, were without Olympic all-round and 2003 world champion Paul Hamm and the inexperienced team struggled in their final two events -- the parallel bar and high bar. The previous worst by a US men's team was ninth place in 1994.
