Soccer shorts

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Knee injury means Terry will miss Swansea game

JOHN TERRY will miss Chelsea’s Premier League game at Swansea tonight after aggravating a knee injury.

The Chelsea captain played through the pain in Saturday’s FA Cup tie at QPR but will not travel to the Liberty Stadium, meaning Gary Cahill is set to make his debut.

Ramires (knee) joins Frank Lampard (calf) and John Obi Mikel (hamstring) on the sidelines, while Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou are still on African Nations Cup duty.

Meanwhile, Chelsea yesterday closed in on completing the signing of Kevin De Bruyne after the Genk midfielder underwent a medical.

The 20-year-old was in London yesterday to seal a reported €8 million transfer on a five-and-a-half-year contract before being loaned back to the Belgian champions for the rest of the season.

Another possible target is Lille’s Eden Hazard, who has confirmed he wants to join a Premier League club in the summer.

Cabaye charged over kick incident

NEWCASTLE midfielder Yohan Cabaye has been charged with violent conduct following an incident in Saturday’s FA Cup fourth-round defeat at Brighton.

The Football Association confirmed that the French midfielder has been charged after allegedly kicking out at Brighton’s Egyptian defender Adam El-Abd.

“The 26-year-old faces a three-match ban if he accepts or is subsequently convicted of the charge” a statement said.

Ivory Coast into quarter-finals

EMMANUEL EBOUE and Bony Wilfried scored the goals which saw Ivory Coast beat Angola 2-0 to go through to a quarter-final meeting with African Nations Cup hosts Equatorial Guinea after winning Group B.

The win also saw the losers go out of the competition as they finished with a worse goal difference than Sudan, 2-1 winners over Burkina Faso. Etaib Mudather scored twice for Sudan, with Issiaka Ouedraogo replying.

Angola might have finished one goal worse off than Sudan but the gulf between them and Ivory Coast was easily greater than the 2-0 scoreline.

Eboue gave Ivory Coast the lead when he slid in at the far post to score on the half hour and Wilfried doubled the advantage when he punished a mix-up in defence 30 minutes later. Abdulkader Keita played a ball behind the Angola defence and when Alex Massunguna headed it past his own goalkeeper Wilfried ran through to tap into an empty net.

Celtic sign striker Brozek on loan

PAWEL BROZEK has joined Celtic on loan from Trabzonspor, the club have confirmed. The Polish striker, 28, will spend the remainder of the season at Parkhead, with Celtic having the option to make the move permanent.

His signing will be seen as a transfer coup by manager Neil Lennon after the player was also targeted by Old Firm rivals Rangers.

Brozek, who is set to be officially unveiled at a media conference today, revealed how he sought the advice of past and present Hoops players ahead of the move.

Brozek told Celtic’s official website: “I’m very happy because Celtic were very determined to sign me and it didn’t take a long time.

“I spoke with Lukasz Zaluska and Maciej Zurawski and they said only positive things about the club so when I heard there was an offer from Celtic I wanted to go straight away.

“They said the fans are fantastic here, the top organisation of the club, and the great name the club has in the world.”

Van Persie facing no further action

ARSENAL striker Robin van Persie will face no further action over an incident involving Aston Villa defender Carlos Cuellar during Sunday’s FA Cup fourth-round match at the Emirates Stadium.

Villa boss Alex McLeish called for the Football Association to take retrospective action against the Dutchman for what he claimed was an elbow on the Spaniard, but match referee Mike Jones has told the FA he saw the incident and decided it was not worthy of punishment.

McLeish said on Sunday, following his side’s 3-2 defeat: “I thought it was a clear elbow, but the referee did not seem to think there was anything in it.

“Would I like the FA to look at it? Yes, if it was an elbow in the face – look at my nose, it is a result of elbows all my career. It is something which is dangerous.

“I don’t like to point the finger at players, but it has happened to mine enough times.”

Dalglish confirms no transfers

LIVERPOOL manager Kenny Dalglish tried to put an end to speculation about striker Andy Carroll’s future after stressing there will be no transfer movement in or out of the club in the current window.

The €42 million record signing has become the focal point of much speculation after enduring a difficult first year at Anfield following his move from Newcastle United.

Having been linked with a highly unlikely cut-price return to the Magpies, reports emerged at the weekend which claimed Manchester City had turned down an offer to swap Carroll for their wantaway striker Carlos Tevez.

Dalglish said “There is no one going in or out the club before the transfer window [closes]. I don’t read the papers so I don’t know [about speculation] but we have covered what we have to say.”