‘Heartbroken’ Tottenham midfielder stretchered off in win at Wolves Netherlands star faces eight months out after scans confirm injury Xavi Simons has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and will be out for around eight months. The Tottenham midfielder suffered the injury in his team’s 1-0 win at Wolves on Saturday and will be unavailable for the remainder of the club’s Premier League survival fight. His devastation has been compounded by the knowledge that he will not be able to play for the Netherlands at the World Cup finals this summer. Simons was stretchered off at Molineux in the 63rd minute after twisting his knee in the turf as he chased a ball towards the byline. It is a terrible blow for him and the club, whose new manager, Roberto De Zerbi, was counting on the 23-year-old’s creativity in the battle against relegation. Despite the victory over Wolves, which was Spurs’ first in 16 league games, they remain 18th in the table, two points behind 17th-placed West Ham...
Ethel Barrymore theatre, New York Debbie Allen’s revival of the 1984 drama boasts a compelling cast, led by Taraji P Henson and Cedric the Entertainer, but too many notes are off Earlier this year, Viola Davis excitedly quoted August Wilson’s play, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, while announcing Michael B Jordan’s Oscar win. “You are shining, Herald Loomis,” she beamed, “shining like new money!” It was a touching acknowledgment of the actor’s long-awaited recognition, and the glory that awaits him. For most of Wilson’s 1911-set piece, Loomis is a man weary from an endless walk through the shadow of the valley of death, his spirit all but broken by systemic racism. Salvation is hardly guaranteed, but flickers in the distance. So it goes in Debbie Allen’s uneven Broadway staging, the play’s third since its 1984 premiere. Part of his monumental Century Cycle of 10 plays representing each decade of the 20th-century Black American experience, Wilson’s play has undeniable lyricism but needs ...