- Sabalenka relishes 'much-needed' tennis rivalry with Swiatek
- Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson set for six weeks out
- Taylor Swift got police escort to London gigs after Austria terror plot
- Cook tips Root to break Tendulkar's all-time runs record
- British skull auction sparks Indian demand for return
- Joe Root: England's elegant Test record-breaker
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
- Jurgen Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Sinner to face Medvedev in Shanghai Masters quarter-finals
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Record-breaking Root guides England to 232-2 in reply to Pakistan's 556
- Japan PM dissolves parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- Goodbye Tito? Tomb at risk as Serbs argue over Yugoslav legacy
- Restoration experts piece together silent Sherlock Holmes mystery
- Sinner avoids Shanghai deja vu with assured Shelton win
- Pyongyang to 'permanently' shut border with South Korea
- Trumpet star Marsalis says jazz creates 'balance' in divided world
- No children left on Greece's famed but emptying island
- Nepali becomes youngest to climb world's 8,000m peaks
- Climate change made deadly Hurricane Helene more intense: study
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Padres edge Dodgers, Mets on the brink
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- With EU funding, Tunisian farmer revives parched village
- Sega ninja game 'Shinobi' gets movie treatment
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- Three million UK children living below poverty line: study
- China's Jia brings film spanning love, change over decades to Busan
- Paying out disaster relief before climate catastrophe strikes
- Chinese shares drop on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- SE Asian summit seeks progress on Myanmar civil war
- How climate funds helped Peru's women beekeepers stay afloat
- Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded as wars rage
- Pacific island nations swamped by global drug trade
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
Ireland suffer 'big loss' as Porter ruled out of rest of Six Nations
Ireland suffered a blow to their Six Nations title hopes on Thursday as prop Andrew Porter was ruled out of their final two matches due to an ankle injury.
Porter, 26, and fellow prop Tadhg Furlong have become mainstays of the starting XV under head coach Andy Farrell.
The 42-times capped Porter suffered the injury during Ireland's 57-6 thumping of Italy last Sunday.
"He (Porter) is a big loss," admitted Ireland's forwards coach Paul O'Connell at a press conference on Thursday.
"He is a modern prop forward, excellent scrummager but also his ball carrying for us, and he is a really good poacher.
"He is a great man to get penalties at the ruck, he is no nonsense to coach and gets on with it, he is very easy to work with. He will as I said be a big loss."
Porter will miss Ireland's tricky away match against England on March 12 and the final game at home to Scotland a week later.
Both Ireland and England have lost a game apiece but still entertain hopes of the title. They must hope Grand Slam-chasing France slip up against either the Welsh on March 11 or England in Paris on March 19.
O'Connell, though, believes Porter's potential replacements, the vastly experienced Cian Healy and David Kilcoyne, are capable of turning in big performances.
"These guys (Healy and Kilcoyne) have a lot more rugby under their belts than their match minutes for Ireland this season would have you believe," said O'Connell.
"He (Porter) is a loss but this is a great opportunity for the other two.
"Kilcoyne started against England 12 months ago but went off early to be replaced by Cian who put in a huge performance (in a 32-18 Ireland win).
"There is great experience there and both of them are really enthusiastic.
"I am very happy what we have behind Andrew Porter."
D.Sawyer--AMWN