The Morning Sports Briefing

GAA: Championship

Tyrone have been boosted by the news that Tiernan McCann will be available for selection for Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry after his proposed eight-week ban was thrown out at a Central Hearings Committee meeting at Croke Park on Wednesday night.

McCann found himself in bother after he feigned injury when Monaghan’s Darren Hughes touched the top of his head/hair during the quarter-final clash at Croke Park. McCann dived to the ground and Hughes was sent off by referee Marty Duffy. The meeting went into the early hours of this morning, with Mayo’s Kevin Keane also having his red card from the Donegal game rescinded - let’s hope that neither players were up early for work today.

Mickey Harte's team are also the topic of this week's GAA Statistics column; looking at how their hard running counter-attacking game has paid dividends.

“Against Monaghan they scored on 18 occasions (0-10 from play), seven of those instances were the result of a turnover of sorts. Their average scoring movement consisted of just three handpasses and a kickpass.”

Soccer: Champions League

Celtic’s first-leg Champions League playoff last night didn’t go exactly to script, well at least not in their eyes.

Jo Inge Berget, once not so much an ineffectual Celtic player as an anonymous one, hauled Malmo back into this play-off with a goal in the fifth minute of added time from a dreadfully defended corner. At only 3-2 behind heading to their home in Sweden next week, Malmo will clearly fancy their chances of overturning a scenario which earlier looked well beyond their reach.

Rugby: World Cup warm-ups

Ireland outhalf Johnny Sexton told Gerry Thornley yesterday that he is ‘itching’ for action following a first proper pre-season in two years.

Sexton is coming into this World Cup in very different circumstances to the last one - a rotational player to the main man;

“I learnt a lot in the last World Cup, definitely. Maybe a lot of hard lessons but it definitely made me stronger and I’ve had a pretty good four years since. Hopefully I can perform individually and more importantly help the team in a collective way. That’s always Joe’s mantra – improving the team as an individual.”

Golf: US Amateur

Paul Dunne shook off the dogged American Robbie Ziegler on the 18th to move into the last 32 of the US Amateur Championship in Chicago last night.

The Greystones local said; “I played well at the start and had good chances at four, five and six from 10 feet and missed them all, which was disappointing.”

Next up is Caleb Proveaux from South Carolina in the second round, but for fellow Irish players Gary Hurley and Cormac Sharvin they now have a nervy wait for the Walker Cup team to be announced as they missed out on places in the matchplay field.

What to watch out for:

England will look to finish off the Ashes series in style today; 5th Test, D1 England v Australia.

Sky Sports 2 from 10am

See if Paul Dunne can continue his form at the US Amateur Championship.

Sky Sports 4 Red Button from 8pm

While Southampton are in action tonight in the Europa League Play-off versus FC Midtjylland.

BT Sport Europe from 7.45pm