Sky Sports understands Swedish teenager Abdul Aziz has been forced to cut short his trial with Liverpool because of a heavy bout of flu.
Sky Sports revealed earlier this week how the 14-year-old from ISK Norkopping had been handed a two-week trial with the Reds.
Their scouts had sent back glowing reports to the Premier League club about Aziz's scoring exploits with his club and Under-15 national team.

So there is at last some good news on the injury front, Carl Jenkinson has had positive scan results and is back in training, TV5 is not far off and may be back for Manu. Per looks unlikely to beat his flu in time for Swansea, while Johan Djourou is back from suspension. It still means that our back four this sunday will be rather ropey and may contain Squillaci, not good.

By Chris Wright

This lo-res candid photo is doing the rounds today after being released into the wild by Barcelona's official club photographer, one Miguel Ruiz.

It shows a distraught Lionel Messi, alongside the void Andres Iniesta and the thoroughly knackered Javier Mascherano, struggling to stave off the waterworks after Barca's last-minute 1-0 defeat at the hands of Real Madrid in last year's Copa Del Rey final (e.

Sorry I went AWOL on everyone (which I'm guessing is about 5 readers at this point in the offseason ;)) for a few days, stomach flu sucks. A couple of interesting news items came out this week.

• Colorado declined the options on Miguel Comminges, Danny Earls, Steven Emory, and Michael Holody.

Holody's 3 years of service means he's eligible to be selected by other MLS teams in next week's re-entry drafts.

A question of ethics -- can you get mad at your 90-year-old Grandmother for getting you sick on Thanksgiving when you spend 40 minutes in the car with her driving her back to her home?A question of insanity -- can you start snorting the crystals in Thera-Flu packets in Kenny Powers fashion?A question of practicality -- can you try to assemble a weekly EPL preview-o-rama when every three seconds

More Balotelli madness plus Pepe Reina gets lost in translation

There's never a dull moment in the life of the newly-blonde Mario Balotelli, and Manchester City's last training session before facing Liverpool was no exception. The Italian striker had to stop in distress.

Kenny Dalglish quashes conspiracy theories on Steven Gerrard's injury

• Liverpool's manager says the problem is 'nothing sinister' • Gerrard faces spell out to recover from an ankle infection Kenny Dalglish has said there is nothing "sinister" in Steven Gerrard's latest fitness problem and that the Liverpool captain is progressing well.

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish is hopeful Steven Gerrard will only miss one Premier League game with his latest injury problem.
The midfielder was sidelined for last weekend's win over West Brom after suffering an infection to his ankle.
The problem has ruled Gerrard out of this Saturday's home clash with Swansea as well as England's upcoming friendlies against Spain and Sweden.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has provided an update on the fitness of Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard.
In his weekly press conference a few minutes ago, Dalglish said:
"Steven, since they found the infection, has really been progressing extremely well. Everything's positive for him.

Depressed? You bet! And I've got a lingering flea-flu aswell. As usual the game of the weekend didn't fold out as hoped and now we are in deep trouble. Still avoiding to pick up points, now for the fifth consecutive match, I begin to feel doubts that we'll stay up this season. Maybe it's the [...]

Apologies for the delay, a summer flu has knocked me out for the last 24 hours. Preview of tomorrow's Chivas game will be up later tonight.
After the worst first half the Rapids have played in years they straightened things out and halftime and dominated the second half en route to a win.

Por Halftown
Algo se mueve en China. Hace algunas semanas, la prensa deportiva mundial se quedaba patedefuá cuando el Guangzhou Evergrande convirtió al argentino Darío Conca en uno de los cinco jugadores mejor pagados del mundo, al aflojarle 10,6 millones de euros por temporada.
La cifra es tan mareante que poca gente tuvo el cuajo de tirar de demagogia habitual en este tipo de operaciones.

Some nights you wonder about yourself. It was cool and rainy Saturday night and I have been fighting flu or a cold. I should have stayed in bed.
So the fact that TFC blew a 2 goal lead makes it a little personal. It was too easy to walk away from the stadium thinking that it all went south and the attendance effort should have been saved for a sunny day.

06.05.2011 - Después de ver Madrid y Milan, llegó la tercera entrega de "Capitales del Fútbol", documentales de ESPN: ahora es el turno de Río de Janeiro, Brasil.
Playa, fútbol y carnaval.
Los preparativos el día del clásico
Fla - Flu.

21.04.2011 - Al tiempo de ver (entre otros) "The Two Escobars" encontramos otro documental (entre otros) digno de verse por quien precia el fútbol.
En su serie documental, ESPN lanzó ahora "Capitales del Fútbol", recorriendo cuatro destacadas capitales futboleras del mundo, Madrid, Milan, Río de Janeiro y Buenos Aires, en cuatro episodios semanales.

21.04.2011 - Terminó el partido, el último partido de la fase de grupos (Libertadores). Fluminense dejó eliminado (4-2) a Argentinos Júniors en La Paternal. Los jugadores se saludaban... pero Marquinho (Flu) hizo un gesto al público local...
COPA LIBERTADORES: FIXTURE OCTAVOS DE FINAL.

Fredy Montero did, indeed, take part in Tuesday's Seattle Sounders intrasquad softball game, but he was wearing a rather large cast. As such, it's not surprising to hear Sigi Schmid say Montero's participation in Saturday's match against the Philadelphia Union is not yet assured.

"Obviously he has got to feel comfortable with the cast on.

Wallace

Fluminense's 16-year-old defender, Wallace, may make a switch to Europe before kicking a ball for his professional team in Rio.

When Deco moved from Chelsea to Flu, the London club bought 40% of Wallace's economic rights. The right back played a significant part in Brazil's Under 17s success in Ecuador, and this could prompt an early transfer to Chelsea.

This will be a positive post, so those of a cup half empty disposition, look away.

Firstly, we are on a long unbeaten run in the PL extending to almost four months. During that time we have conceded just 10 goals. Taking out the madness at St. James, we have conceded 6 in 12 PL games hardly the stats of a dodgy defence.

Training was closed to reporters Thursday, so we're left to guess about Fredy Montero's availability for Saturday's game against the Chicago Fire. From coach Sigi Schmid's comments, though, I wouldn't expect to see the Seattle Sounders Designated Player suit up.

"The chance of him playing on Saturday is unlikely at this stage because there is still some swelling in there," Schmid said.

It's been a week alright chez Lower. Pretty much as soon as I had put the League Cup final post to bed I began to feel a tad squiffy, something I initially feared might be related to my demolition of the restorative post-defeat sirloin late on Sunday night.

I feared the very worst: a meat intolerance.

The year 2011 is seeing a lot of action at many levels of the game all over the world. The latest tournament to begin is the CONCACAF Under-17 Championship which takes place from today in Jamaica.

The tournament sees twelve teams split into four groups of three with the top two from each going through to the quarter-finals, at which point the tournament becomes a straight knockout.

Another day, another friendly, another possibility for embarrassment.

[caption id="attachment_1446" align="aligncenter" width="412" caption="And we've got posters and everything, how exciting..."][/caption]

World Champions Spain will face Colombia today (Wednesday 9th of February at 21:30 CET) for the first friendly of 2011 at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid.

A couple of items today:

First, Cesc Fabregas has withdrawn from Spain's midweek international match with a virus. Robin van Persie has withdrawn from Holland's midweek match with the flu, and Gibbs has withdrawn from the England match with an unspecified "minor injury." I hope everyone is okay and they all get lots of rest ahead of next week's league match against Wolves.

Posted by Jared Montz

I am so sorry to say this but there will be no Jared Montz Soccer Podcast this week. I have been battling the Flu since Tuesday January 18 and today is the first day I am sort of feeling back to my normal self. You may have noticed my lack of blog posting, social media posting, etc and that is all been because of the Flu.

Posted by Jared Montz

I am so sorry to say this but there will be no Jared Montz Soccer Podcast this week. I have been battling the Flu since Tuesday January 18 and today is the first day I am sort of feeling back to my normal self. You may have noticed my lack of blog posting, social media posting, etc and that is all been because of the Flu.

I've been in and out of the stadium this week with flu, and found some great shots from this year's Major League Soccer SuperDraft on my hard drive. As many of you know, we selected defender/midfielder Perry Kitchen from the University of Akron. Below is the best of the bunch from the festivities in Baltimore, Md.

Image: REUTERS/Jon Nazca.

Have you gotten your flu shots, Kickettes?

Well, apparently a few of us missed ours. Others are keeping warm and toasty mid-blizzard in their beds. One of us is really lazy.

So here's the bad news: Iker had Sara C. to tend to his achey head and possibly bruised ego following last night's onslaught of winged water bottles.

So, we're a little more than halfway through the January Transfer Window and so far it has been an interesting one. Due to a combination of holidays, travel, and the flu I haven't been up to my usual standards for what I consider to be the most fun time of any season. That time when we get to analyze and speculate about the wisdom of moves made and not made.

Having been slowed considerably by a nasty flu, a new flat search and the unbeatable laws of phone tag, here's a few things going on that I've yet to complete full reports on, some of which you've likely heard:- Robbie Findley has won his work permit appeal, but must still complete visa procedures before he can play for Nottingham Forest.

Premier League team news - ESPN SoccernetIn an effort to make something positive out of a negative, I'm going to list myself as the first person on this list today. In doing so, I at least get an opening paragraph for a column out of the fact that I came down with some sort of cold/flu on my birthday yesterday.

Manchester United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak has insisted that he finds in himself a suitable replacement for 40 year-old Edwin van der Sar claiming he is good enough to fill in the gloves when the Dutch finally calls quit.

Van der sar has been recently out with a flu, and the current Manchester United number 1 is considering his options concerning either retiring or going on for Manchester United.

Liverpool continue the slide, falling 2-1 at Blackpool.

Dunno whether it's just my flu getting worse or if watching was that traumatic, but I'm feeling like shit, so this'll be an open thread for now. Some positives to go with the supremely disappointing result better football played by Liverpool on the whole, particularly in the first half, and signs that there's enough talent in the squad to play that type of football on a consistent basis.

The boys are back after a long three week break encompassing Father Christmas, Flu, Chelsea getting spanked by Arsenal, throwing it away against Villa, being humiliated at Wolves and then finally redeeming themselves on Sunday with a 7-0 thumping of Ipswich. Glorious Unpredictability or what!
As well as discussing the game against Ipswich on Sunday and having a cursory chat about the other four matches, we also award our Man of the Match; Chant of the Match; Celery and Guinness moments.

Kickoff from Bloomfield Road at 20:00 GMT and 3:00 EST.

Ways to Watch:

Match not televised live in the UK; Fox Soccer Channel has it in the US.

MyP2P.eu
Atdhe.net
ChannelSurfing.net

Liverpool:

Team sheet when it's released.

Good news today for Newcastle fans, in that star left-back Jose Enrique is back in training, after resting up from last Saturday with the flu. Jose Enrique - in action at Everton Joe of course missed the disaster at Stevenage last Saturday, when he went down with flu, but it looks like he'll be available [.

Welcome to NUFC 'Blog's Wigan Athletic v Newcastle United match banter. Apologies in advance if it isn't up to the usual standards, however I am in the latter stages of a fairly horrible 'flu. However, for a more in depth preview of the game, please check out Toonsy's excellent match preview. He will be at [.