Sports Digest: French soccer star Mbappe sidelined by COVID-19

SOCCER

France and Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss a Nations League match Tuesday against Croatia, the French federation said on Monday.

Mbappe was isolated once he found out about his positive test and left France’s training camp to return home on Monday evening.

SPAIN: Lionel Messi returned to training with Barcelona on Monday, almost two weeks after he told the club he wanted to leave.

After reluctantly changing his mind, Messi was back with the team to prepare for the new season. The club said he practiced separately from the rest of the squad because he still needs to undergo a second coronavirus test before rejoining his teammates.

Messi said last week he wasn’t happy with Barcelona but would rather stay for the final season of his contract than get into a legal battle with the “club of his life.”

The Spanish league begins this weekend, but Barcelona will not start its season until the end of the month with a home game against Villarreal.

BASKETBALL

NBA: Los Angeles Clippers guard Patrick Beverley was fined $25,000 by the league for verbally abusing a game official in Game 2 of his team’s Western Conference semifinal series against the Denver Nuggets.

The incident took place Saturday night with 1:04 remaining in what became a 110-101 loss for the Clippers. Beverley was demonstrably upset with a foul call against him four seconds earlier, then unsuccessfully tried to take a charge when play resumed and got called for a blocking foul.

Beverley then got two technical fouls as he argued to no avail. It became his second ejection of the season and his first of the playoffs.

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