debut

Not only are Gordon, Kelly and Clark out at present, Robby McCrorie went down in the warm-up. It all likelihood, he’s the one who would have come on against Iceland.

With Gunn and McCrorie likely to be out of Monday’s friendly against Liechtenstein, too, and Slicker’s confidence through the floor, will Clarke turn to someone else?

“You have to find out what’s in the player’s mind as well, how he’s feeling about it,” former Scotland defender Willie Miller said of Slicker.

“What you’re looking for is honesty from him. Does he feel like he can take on the challenge in the next game, or that he doesn’t want to?

“Does the manager want to take him out of the firing line?”

McKenna, 18, has more senior experience than Slicker, but not by much. He played nine matches for Queen’s Park in the Scottish Championship before signing for Bournemouth in 2024.

He’s been in their development squad since and has been with the Scotland group as a training player for the past week.

Given the lack of options, Clarke’s first phone call might be to Jon McLaughlin.

The two-time Scotland cap, 37, only played one FA Cup game for Swansea City last season and is now out of contract. But he was a squad regular, is experienced, and would likely be considered one of the safest options.

Dundee goalkeeper Jon McCracken was in Scotland squads during the season just gone, but was replaced between at Dens Park by Trevor Carson midway through the term.

Other Scotland-based options would be Scott Bain – recently released by Celtic – or Ross Doohan – recently signed by Celtic.

MK Dons keeper Craig MacGillivray has previously been called up by Clarke, too, but would appear to be a long way down the pecking order these days.

BRA-VO to Helen Flanagan as she models lingerie for her debut underwear collection.

The former Coronation Street actress, 34, has launched the range with Nikki Intimates.

4

4

4

Mum-of-three Helen said she loves modelling lingerie and plans to do it into her 60s.

She recently split with former non-league footballer Robbie Talbot, 45, after a year together.

The former Corrie star, 34, had claimed she wanted children with the ex-non-league footie star, 45.

But friends say the mum of three instead now wants to concentrate on her career and family.

A source said: “They want different things in life. She has just landed a new acting job and is trying to juggle work projects with the kids.

She sat him down two weeks ago and said, ‘This isn’t working’. It was a grown-up chat.

“She just wants to be on her own for a while although she still has feelings for him.”

Helen split from Scott Sinclair, dad of her three kids, in 2022.

She met divorced dad Robbie in a bar just as she was about to go on E4’s Celebs Go Dating.

4

Linsey Smith becomes just the second England player to take a five-wicket haul on her One Day International debut to help England to a 108-run victory over West Indies in Derby.

MATCH REPORT: England Women v West Indies Women – first ODI

Available to UK users only.

Fearnley was ranked outside of the world’s top 500 just 12 months ago but the 23-year-old has risen rapidly up the rankings to a career-high of 55.

He will face either Christopher O’Connell of Australia or French 22nd seed Ugo Humbert in the second round.

After clinching the opening set via a tie-break, Fearnley broke early in the second and raced out to a 4-1 lead before serving the set out to love.

Wawrinka, who knocked Andy Murray out in the first round last year, dropped serve immediately in the third set but fought back to move level at 2-2 – much to the delight of the crowd on court 14.

However, their joy was short-lived as Fearnley quickly restored his lead and won four straight games to wrap up victory.

Fearnley has now won on his main draw debut at each of the three Grand Slams he has featured at so far – Wimbledon, the Australian Open and Roland Garros.

Coronation Street fans saw the arrival of new character Molly Kilduff in tonight’s episode as the daughter of Mick and Lou – but it’s not the star’s first taste of stardom

It’s been a dramatic few weeks in Coronation Street and it doesn’t look like things are slowing down anytime soon. In tonight’s episode, fans will be introduced to Mick and Lou Michaelis’ daughters Joanie and Shanice Michaelis, played by Molly Kilduff. Although it may be the youngster’s first time onscreen, it’s not her first taste of stardom. In fact, her sister is a huge Britain’s Got Talent star.

In tonight’s episode, the daughters are seen for the first time, despite having been mentioned many times previously. Making their entrance, their mother Lou tells them they’re going away for a bit. However, Tim takes them to A&E after seeing a cut on Lou’s head.

Last week, spoilers revealed that Lou refuses to discuss her abusive relationship and flees, leaving Tim with her daughters. This carries on later in the week, as it’s been revealed the girls are still with Tim. But has something bad happened to Lou?

Last week, Molly’s sister Jade, who is part of BGT sign-language choir Sign Along With Us, took to Instagram to say how proud she was of her sister.

The star, who appeared on the ITV talent show in 2020, shared a selfie of herself and Molly smiling outside the Rovers, which she captioned: “Could not be prouder of you Molly Moo !! Such a beautiful, funny, confident, talented and above all kind little girl. Shining bright on those cobbles like the star you are.”

Fans showed their support to the new actress in the comments, with one writing: “Ohh she’s adorable. Well done little superstar!” Another echoed: “She’s a little superstar.”

The group left a mark on the BGT judges as they were given a Golden Buzzer by former judge, David Walliams. The group, comprised of 69 members, came second in the competition, narrowly losing out to comedic pianist and singer Jon Courtenay – the first Golden Buzzer act to win the series.

Jade was 18 at the time of entering, whereas her younger brother, Christian, who is also in the band, was just four years old. Jade had started the sign language class after teaching her younger brother who struggles with co-ordination due to his cerebral palsy.

Mick and Lou joined the soap earlier this year – but they won’t be staying long. In March, it was confirmed that the couple would be leaving the soap following the conclusion of a “major storyline” in Summer.

Breaking his silence on his exit so soon, Joe Layton, who plays Mick said: “I knew about it from when the casting came through from my agent, so even for the prep for the tape you take a dive into the psychology of him, how you inhabit these kind of head spaces. I think for me, the opportunity to step into Corrie for six months with a start and a finish point is a real gift.”

Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and ITV X.

* Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok, Snapchat ,Instagram ,Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads .

Clayton Kershaw paused halfway up the dugout steps Saturday and bowed his head. The jog he was about to make to the mound at Dodger Stadium would be the first steps of what is likely the final chapter of his spectacular career.

A moment of silent reflection was in order.

“I don’t like the word emotional, but there’s definitely some thoughts. It’s just special,” Kershaw said of his first outing of the season, an uneven four-inning stint in the Dodgers’ 11-9 loss to the Angels. “You get a little bit older, you just learn to appreciate that more. It was different.”

Kershaw threw his last pitch in August at Phoenix’s Chase Field; Corbin Carroll hit it over the right-field wall. Kershaw then walked off the mound and was put on the injured list with a bone spur on his left big toe.

The first pitch of his latest comeback came at 6:10 p.m. Saturday, a high fastball that Zach Neto took for a ball. The rest of the inning went downhill from there, with Kershaw giving up three runs on three hits and two walks in the first inning.

He recovered nicely, though, yielding two runs and two hits over the next three innings while striking out two over four innings in a wild game the Angels won behind a career-high five RBIs from catcher Logan O’Hoppe.

“I love getting back out there. It’s a special thing to get to go back and pitch at Dodger Stadium,” Kershaw said. “Obviously, I wanted to pitch better. I need to pitch better going forward. But I think there’s some glimpses of some of my stuff being there, which is good. The problem tonight was just command.

“But, you know, first one back and just to be back out here at Dodger Stadium was special for me, regardless of the outcome.”

Kershaw’s return comes at a key time for the Dodgers (29-17), who are missing three starters — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki — to injury.

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw wipes his face during the third inning of an 11-9 loss to the Angels on Saturday night.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

A three-time Cy Young Award winner, Kershaw, 37, is the Dodgers’ all-time leader in strikeouts and is 30 shy of becoming the 20th pitcher in big-league history to reach 3,000. His 212 career wins are second in franchise history behind only Don Sutton’s 233 and his 2.50 ERA ranks third. He also ranks third in starts (430).

But he’s spent almost as much time on the injured list as he has in the Dodgers’ rotation over the last five seasons and the list of injuries includes so many body parts, it reads like a page out of “Gray’s Anatomy”. There’s the toe, which kept him off the opening day roster. Last season it was knee, toe and shoulder injuries. In 2023, it was his left shoulder. The year before that, his back and pelvis and before that it was his forearm, elbow and back again.

Last season was clearly the most painful, though. Kershaw made seven starts and pitched just 30 innings, both career lows, and missed the World Series. Days after the team’s victory parade, he underwent surgery for a torn meniscus in his left knee and another on his left foot that left him on crutches and in a walking boot for two months.

“The superstar players that I have been around, there’s always something that fuels them and they need that,” Roberts said. “Him not being a part of that last year, I know that that’s fueling him.”

Logan O’Hoppe hits a three-run home run off Dodgers reliever Kirby Yates in the seventh inning Saturday.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

With Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, Kershaw’s high school teammate, looking on, Kershaw struggled through a 38-pitch first inning, giving up a bases-loaded single to O’Hoppe and an RBI double to Matthew Lugo. But the Dodgers needed just four batters to match that with Andy Pages belting a three-run homer, his ninth of the season, to dead center in the bottom of the inning.

After Kershaw retired the side in order in the second, Taylor Ward put the Angels (19-25) back in front in the third, hitting his 11th home run. A walk, a double and a sacrifice fly from Neto extended the lead in the fourth before Kiké Hernández pulled a run back for the Dodgers with a lead-off homer, his seventh, in the bottom of the fourth.

Kershaw was done by then, having thrown 83 pitches, nearly half of them in the first inning.

“The stuff overall, I was impressed with,” Roberts said. “The velocity was more than it’s been in quite some time. At times the slider was good. At times the curveball was good. He mixed in a lot of change-ups, which was good.

“The command just wasn’t consistent. He got to a lot of two-strike counts and couldn’t put hitters away, where typically that’s his hallmark.”

The Dodgers went in front for the first time in the sixth, turning three walks, two hits, a stolen base, a wild pitch and a ground-ball double play into three runs and 7-5 lead that O’Hoppe erased with his 10th homer, highlighting a five-run Angel seventh inning.

Five players — O’Hoppe, Luis Rengifo, Lugo, Nolan Schanuel and Kevin Newman — had two hits each for the Angels, who will try to sweep the three-game series Sunday afternoon.

For the Dodgers, Freddie Freeman matched a season high with four hits and is batting .407 in May, raising his league-leading average to .375. Pages, Hernández and catcher Dalton Rushing each had two hits.

Notes: Shohei Ohtani, who went hitless in six at-bats for the first time since 2019, threw 50 pitches in his most extensive bullpen session since undergoing a second surgery on his right elbow in 2023. The up-and-down session, in which Ohtani simulated a break between innings, was his second in a week. … To make room for Kershaw on the 26-man roster the Dodgers optioned right-hander Ryan Loutos to the minors. To create space on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers moved Snell to the 60-day injured list.

Last year could have been a storybook ending.

Had Clayton Kershaw been healthy, he likely would have been part of the Dodgers’ postseason rotation. He would have given them badly needed innings during their run to a World Series championship. And, in Year 17 of his future Hall of Fame career, he could have ridden off into the sunset, having little else to prove after playing an integral role on two championship teams.

“Yeah, if I was able to be a part of last year’s run and win a World Series and get to go out like that, that would have been really cool,” Kershaw said recently, contemplating what might have been if only he was available to pitch last October. “But I wasn’t. And it was still really fun to be part of. But it made it easier to want to come back, for sure.”

Back again, Kershaw is set to make his season debut for the Dodgers on Saturday after spending the first two months of the campaign recovering from offseason surgeries to address toe and knee injuries that sidelined him for the team’s title-winning trek through the playoffs last year.

Unlike previous offseasons, when the now 37-year-old Kershaw seemed to give retirement more serious thought, the three-time Cy Young Award winner made his mind up quickly last fall. Even before the Dodgers won their second championship in the last five years, he knew he wanted to pitch in 2025. After making just seven starts in 2024 with a 4.50 ERA, and missing the stretch run of the season when his long bothersome toe injury finally became too much, he didn’t want his career to end with him as a spectator, able only to cheer from the dugout as the Dodgers went on to win the World Series without him.

“For me, just getting back out on the mound is a big first step,” Kershaw said, ahead of what will be his first big-league outing since Aug. 30 of last year. “And then it’s the rest of the season, obviously. But just making it through Saturday and getting back out there is what I’ve thought about so far.”

To get to this point, the 18-year veteran had to endure a grueling offseason.

Days after the Dodgers’ World Series parade, Kershaw had two surgical operations: One on his left knee, where he had suffered a torn meniscus; and another on his left foot to address arthritis, a bone spur on his big toe and, most seriously, a ruptured plantar plate.

“If someone asked me, ‘What all did they do to your foot?’ I don’t know if I can answer all the way, but I know it’s not been fun,” Kershaw said, underscoring the complicated nature of a foot surgery, in particular, that he noted “only one or two baseball players” have had before.

“This one was painful,” he added, contrasting it to the relatively straightforward shoulder procedure he had the previous offseason. “It was like, ‘Oh, this is what people talk about when they talk about bad surgeries.’”

The worst part was the recovery, with Kershaw spending the better part of the next two months on crutches or in a walking boot.

“Trying to be on crutches and have four kids, it’s not easy,” he said. “Your offseason is supposed to be like, where you’re around and get to help more. And those first six weeks, I wasn’t much help. So it’s kind of a helpless feeling. And I don’t sit still well in general. So it was a hard process.”

Still, Kershaw’s commitment to come back never wavered. He was into a throwing program by the start of spring training. He began a minor-league rehab stint in the middle of April. And he posted a 2.57 ERA in five rehab starts, feeling he’d “turned the corner” with his foot over the last couple outings.

“Those last few rehab starts, I was more concerned about throwing well and getting guys out than I was [about] how my foot felt or anything like that,” he said. “So I think that was a good sign for me physically. And now, it’s just a process of figuring out how to get guys out consistently again and perform. That’s a much better place to be than seeing if you’re hurt.”

Exactly how Kershaw will fare back in the big leagues is an unknown. During his rehab stint, his fastball sat in the upper-80 mph range, a few ticks down from the already diminished velocity he’d had in recent seasons. He struck out only 16 batters in 21 innings, relying more on command and an ability to induce soft contact to navigate his way through starts.

On the other hand, Kershaw’s arm is as healthy as it’s been in years, now 17 months removed from his 2023 shoulder surgery. Even without eye-popping stuff last year, he proved to be competitive, owning a 3.72 ERA before leaving his Aug. 30 start early when his toe flared up. And simply having him back in the rotation will come as a boon for the Dodgers, who have been shorthanded recently with fellow starters Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki all nursing shoulder injuries.

“It’s a big shot in the arm,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Clayton has worked really hard to get healthy, and the bar is high for him, you know. He doesn’t want to just come back to be active. He wants to come back and help us win baseball games and be good. And so I know he’s excited to contribute.”

In a break from his typically stoic facade, that excitement was evident from Kershaw all week. Except when reflecting upon the departure of teammate and close friend Austin Barnes, Kershaw was smiling almost everywhere he went around the ballpark in recent days. “Is that unusual?” he deadpanned when a reporter noted the observation Thursday. He also downplayed his pursuit of 3,000 career strikeouts — he is just 32 Ks away from becoming the 20th member of the illustrious statistical club — in favor of amplifying the gratitude he felt about simply pitching in the majors once again.

“I think when you haven’t done something for a long time, and you realize that you miss it — you miss competing, you miss being a part of the team and contributing — there’s a lot of gratitude and gratefulness to get back to that point,” Kershaw said. “I definitely feel that. Now, if I go out there and don’t pitch good, it’s gonna go away real fast. So there’s a performance aspect of it, too. But I think for now, sitting on the other side of it, just super excited and grateful to get to go back out there again.”

When asked if he ever planned on hanging it up, Kershaw then laughed.

“Somebody will tell me to retire at some point, I’m sure,” he said.

But, after finishing last season injured and grinding through a long rehab this winter, that point is not now, not yet.

Eighteen years later, Kershaw still feels he has more to give.

“At the end of the day, you just want to be a contributing factor to the Dodgers,” he said. “You don’t want to just be on the sidelines. So I’m excited to get back to that.”

As is typically the case when a team wins 19-2 like the Dodgers did against the Athletics on Thursday night, plenty of hitters in the team’s star-studded lineup aligned to have monster nights.

Shohei Ohtani homered twice in a six-RBI performance, tying the major league lead with 15 long balls this season. Max Muncy, Andy Pages and James Outman also went deep, helping the club set a new season-high for runs. Hyeseong Kim reached base all five times. Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts also combined to get aboard five times before being removed after the third inning, the lead at that point already up to 11 runs.

All of those accomplishments, however, paled in personal significance to what the Dodgers’ starting catcher did.

Making his major league debut after being called up in a major roster move the day prior, top prospect Dalton Rushing walked in his first at-bat, singled in the next and went two-for-four while navigating a pre-determined bullpen game behind the plate — a strong showing for a 24-year-old slugger with so much potential, the Dodgers cut longtime backup catcher Austin Barnes to get him on the roster.

“He’s very comfortable, I think, in a good way,” manager Dave Roberts said of Rushing, a second-round draft pick in 2022 who has blossomed into one of the most highly-touted prospects in baseball ever since. “I think he thought he was ready [for the majors] when he signed.”

Rushing’s rise wasn’t that quick, requiring the University of Louisville product to climb through the farm system over four minor-league seasons. But after batting .277 with 54 home runs, 185 RBIs and a .931 OPS as a farm hand, the Dodgers decided their minor league player of the year award-winner from last season was finally ready.

As far as first impressions go, Thursday was a good start.

In the second inning, Rushing got a three-run rally started by drawing a leadoff walk. In the third, he worked a full count before blasting a belt-high sinker through the infield at 110 mph off the bat. In the eighth, he tacked on another base hit when a ground ball to first was booted.

The Dodgers have been contemplating when to bring Rushing to the majors for a while, long ago convinced his bat was ready to handle big-league pitching.

It’s part of the reason why, during the second half of last season, they experimented with him in left field; a position where, at the time, he had a clearer pathway to regular playing time.

This offseason, however, the club decided to rededicate his focus to his duties behind the plate, “challenging him,” as president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman put it, to improve his defensive fundamentals, pitching-calling during games and ability to build rapport with members of the pitching staff.

“He’s continued to improve and get better,” Friedman said. “When we drafted him, he was new to catching. So there were a lot of areas to improve upon. But his work ethic is off the charts. And he really cares about being great. Each challenge we’ve given him, he’s met that challenge. And the success he’s had, there’s also an important element of having our finger on the pulse of that with guys, in terms of moving them up.”

And over the last couple weeks, the ways Rushing could potentially impact the club’s MLB roster became increasingly more clear.

Two weeks ago, the Dodgers sorely missed a left-handed bat like his off the bench in a May 4 loss in Atlanta, a game that ended with Barnes and fellow soft-hitting veteran Miguel Rojas recording outs in tough right-on-right matchups against Braves closer Raisel Iglesias.

In Barnes’ final Dodgers start last Saturday in Arizona, his weakened throwing arm was also exposed, the Diamondbacks stealing three bases in a game Barnes one-hopped one throw to second base and airmailed another to the outfield.

Perhaps, if the Dodgers weren’t facing the prospect of a tight division race in this year’s talented National League West, such problems would have been more tolerable. But, with the team’s MLB-best 29-15 record affording them just a one-game division lead so far this year, it’s already become clear that fine margins could matter this season.

So, once the Dodgers returned home from their 10-game trip this week, the front office decided to pull the trigger.

“Rush has obviously been on our radar for a long time in terms of when and how to introduce him to the major league team,” Friedman said. “I think with the improvements we’ve seen year over year, coupled with being in a tight division race … I think it falls in line with our consistent message of doing anything and everything we can to win.”

That didn’t mean cutting Barnes, who was in his 11th season with the Dodgers and won two World Series with the club, wasn’t difficult.

“Obviously Austin has been a huge part of this organization for a long time, he’s been in the middle of a lot of really big moments for us,” Friedman said. “His impact has been significant. So it was one of the harder decisions.”

Barnes’ departure sent ripples around the rest of the clubhouse, as well.

“I think everybody was surprised,” Clayton Kershaw said when asked of Barnes, whose 68 games behind the plate for the future Hall of Famer trails only A.J. Ellis for most in Kershaw’s career.

“It’s sad. Barnesy’s one of my best friends on or off the field. You won’t find a guy that competes better than Austin Barnes. He wants to win more than anybody, and he always found a way, and he came up with some big moments for us throughout the years. I think a lot of people forget he was starting a lot of playoff games and winning a lot of games for us, getting big knocks. It’s sad to see someone like that go who’s been here that long, and I think we all kind of feel it.”

“It’s no disrespect to Dalton,” Kershaw added. “I know he deserves it, and he’s going to be a great player. It’s just for me, personally, I think for a lot of guys on the team, it was disappointing to see [Barnes] go.”

As the door on Barnes’ Dodgers career closes, however, a new one is opening for Rushing.

And one night in, the early results were promising.

“The last mile of his development is helping lead a major league staff,” Friedman said. “We felt like now is the right time to give him that opportunity, and for us to learn some things about him that you can’t know until they’re at the major-league level, and for him to experience the speed of game here, which will be insightful for all of us in terms of the next set of things to work on.”

A’ja Wilson is one of the biggest names in basketball.

Not only is she a two-time WNBA champion, a three-time league MVP, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and an NCAA champion, but Wilson now has her own signature sneakers.

A’ja Wilson debuted the ‘Pink A’ura’ edition of her Nike A’One sneakers Tuesday.

(Courtesy of Nike)

The first wave of online sales of the “Pink A’ura” edition of her Nike A’One shoes began early Tuesday morning. It also ended early Tuesday morning.

It took only five minutes for the kicks to sell out, Nike confirmed to The Times. But fear not, Wilson told her fans in an Instagram story later in the day.

“This morning was wild,” the Las Vegas Aces star and former South Carolina standout wrote. “If you missed the A’One, don’t worry. We’re dropping again Thursday at Nike stores and other spots everywhere.”

Additional A’One sneakers in different colors are also scheduled to be released later this month, including the “OG Pearl” edition on May 15.

In a statement, Nike said of Wilson: “Her debut shoe selling out in minutes is testament to her extraordinary talent and her impact on and off the court. We’re excited to see the response and look forward to bringing more A’One’s to Nike doors and marketplace partners throughout May.”

Nike hyped the sneakers’ release in recent days by dropping a pair of cinematic video ads — one directed by Jenn Nkiru, the other by Malia Obama, both featuring an earworm of a jingle set to the tune of “Mary Mack” (with new lyrics that start, “A’Ja Wilson’s on top, top, top …”).

“It’s special,” Wilson told Desert Wave Media of the release of her first shoe. “It really is. I’m so glad that a long two years of hard work is coming to life and everyone can enjoy it.”