Thursday's Sportsday as it happened

1. Johnson guilty plea a shock - Allardyce
2. Spurs squad does not feel pressure - Pochettino
3. Oscar Pistorius denied leave to appeal against murder conviction
4. SheBelieves Cup: England women v USA women (00:45 GMT)
5. West Brom and Northern Ireland's Chris Brunt to miss Euro 2016

Farewell

And that is where we leave you for today, many thanks for being with us. Now the Shearer-Savage 5-a-side marathon is still in full swing away to my right (Sav is hobbling a bit it appears, but battling on gamely). The live text continues, with the dedicated follower of football fashions, Jonathan Jurejko, currently in the hot seat. Join him for all the fun - and the important message behind it all - and Sportsday will return at 08:00 on Friday. Cheerio now.

5 live Sport

BBC Radio 5 Live

Tonight's 5 live Sport with Will Perry from 19:00 BST features special guest Victoria Pendleton, who will talk about the World Track Cycling Championships that will be live on the BBC, plus her new career as a jockey.

There is also news of the Sport Relief 5-a-side charity matches that are taking place here at Media City, there is an extensive F1 report and from 20:00 Russell Fuller previews the start of Great Britain's Davis Cup defence against Japan in Birmingham.

Flanagan plays down Sterling challenge

AFP

Liverpool defender Jon Flanagan described his crunching challenge on former team-mate Raheem Sterling as "just business." Only 30 seconds into Wednesday's 3-0 victory for Liverpool over Manchester City, Flanagan knocked the £49m signing off his feet with a strong but fair tackle. 

"It was something I had to do to get the crowd up," the 23-year-old said."The crowd have been fantastic, always right behind me even in the dark days. Me and Raheem were good mates at Liverpool but now he's gone to City it is just business on the pitch." 

GB's team pursuit can only aim for bronze

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Great Britain's women's pursuit team can finish no better than third at the Track Cycling World Championships after a poor qualifying ride in London.

The quartet of Laura Trott, Elinor Barker, Ciara Horne and Joanna Rowsell Shand clocked four minutes 21.034 seconds - the fifth-fastest time.

Britain have won six of the previous eight world titles in the event, but they can now only ride off for bronze.

The USA qualified fastest, followed by Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Chastain to donate brain for medical research

Getty Images

Brandi Chastain, famous for her winning penalty for the USA in the 1999 Women's World Cup final, has announced that she is going to donate her brain for medical research.

Chastain, now 47 and a coach, has agreed to donate her brain to researchers at Boston University, pioneers in the study of concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease.

CTE has been found in the brains of dozens of former American football players and ex-West Brom and England striker Jeff Astle, who died in 2002.

She told the New York Times she hoped to leave a "substantial legacy - something that could protect and save some kids", adding: "That was the impetus for saying yes. If we can learn something, we should. And I won’t need it."

Jenas makes Question Time debut

Former Tottenham and England midfielder Jermaine Jenas is diversifying this evening. The Match of the Day pundit will be a guest on the panel of another iconic BBC production, the political discussion programme Question Time at 22:45 GMT.

Celtic to have 'clear-the-air' meeting

Getty Images

Celtic manager Ronny Deila and his players will be having a clear-the-air meeting after Aberdeen narrowed the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership. 

"We need to clean the air and be agreeing with how we go forward," he said after Celtic were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Dundee. "That's my job to do. That's what I'm going to do."

England batting excites Collingwood

Getty Images

England's "powerful" batting line-up gives them a strong chance of winning the World T20 in India, according to former skipper Paul Collingwood.

The Durham all-rounder, who lifted the trophy in the Caribbean in 2010, will be with the squad as part of the coaching staff and believes recent limited-overs defeats in South Africa were "a bit of a blip".

He told BBC Newcastle: "If they play like they did against Australia or New Zealand (last year) they can beat anyone."

Live cycling on the BBC

BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

Also tonight there is coverage of the World Track Cycling Championships in London, live on BBC TWO and BBC Radio 5 live sports extra from 19:00 GMT. Also two-time Olympic gold medallist Victoria Pendleton will be offering her thoughts on the event as a special guest on 5 live Sport from 19:00 GMT.

Pistorius denied leave to appeal

Getty Images

OscarPistorius has been denied leave to appeal against his conviction for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The Constitutional Court has made the ruling, meaning the South African athlete will now be sentenced in April.

Six-time Paralympic gold medallist Pistorius, 29, killed Ms Steenkamp in February 2013 after firing a gun four times through a locked toilet door.

A manslaughter verdict was overturned in December and a murder verdict introduced in its place.

Read the developing story here.

SheBelieves Cup

A reminder that there is live coverage of England women's opening SheBelieves Cup match with the USA on BBC One. For UK viewers it is an early one, or late one, 00:30 GMT on Friday, and the match can also be seen on the BBC website.

Mauricio Pochettino news conference

[Will the greater experience of rivals Arsenal prove significant in the title race?] "It's difficult to know. If they have players that have the advantage to win the title, what happened against Manchester United or Swansea [both matches that Arsenal lost] "We are capable of beating Manchester City away, against West Ham [the 1-0 defeat] was difficult but sometimes we use a lot of topics in football. Football is simple, not too complicated. 

Mark Hughes news conference

News on Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given, who celebrates his 40th birthday next month, and has been rehabilitating following knee surgery. 

"He is working with Andy Quy, our goalkeeping coach," said Hughes. "It's early days yet. He's not doing all elements of the sessions with them at the moment but he is back on the grass, which is encouraging for him. 

"It has been a long time but we're hopeful that before the end of the season he will be fit and available." 

Later kick-off for Man Utd v Liverpool

Simon Stone

BBC Sport

"Official confirmation expected from Uefa later but I am told the second leg of Manchester United's Europa League last 16 tie with Liverpool at Old Trafford on 17 March, originally scheduled for 18:00 GMT, will now kick off at 2005 GMT."

Mark Hughes news conference

An injury update on another Potters defender, Ryan Shawcross. "He's in Germany seeing somebody about his injury. Whether he is available for Saturday remains to be seen.

"We have five fit defenders in the building at the moment and a couple of them aren't fully fit."  

Mark Hughes news conference

The Stoke boss confirms that defender Phil Bardsley will be sidelined through injury and that Geoff Cameron's fitness will be assessed.

"Phil has pulled his calf and will be out for a few weeks. Geoff is really sore, which we expected. We'll look at him on Friday." 

Shearer v Savage

BBC Sport

Robbie Savage is now over halfway though his 12-hour five-a-side marathon for Sport Relief.

It's all taking place outside our office window and he's still smiling, despite puffing and blowing quite a bit. 

Savage is one of five players, along with opposite skipper Alan Shearer, Danny Jones (of McFly), Josh Cuthbert (of Union) and Rachel Riley (Countdown's number cruncher), putting themselves through a gruelling 12-hour stint in the name of charity.  

What troopers they are.

The whole challenge, which started at 09:00 GMT on Thursday, will last for 57 hours. 

You can watch live coverage of the action, and follow our text commentary, here.

And you can donate to Sport Relief here.

Celtic lose Boyata appeal

Celtic lose their appeal against Dedryck Boyata's red card at Hamilton.

Mauricio Pochettino news conference

"It was not nerves, it is difficult to play every game at the intensity we normally play but I am happy with the effort. Our squad is confident, it was only one defeat. The most important thing is that we had chances in that second half, I don't feel the squad feels pressure. We have 10 games, a lot of points to play for."  

Mauricio Pochettino news conference

[On the defeat at West Ham that denied Spurs the chance to go to the top of the table] "We can see how competitive the Premier League is, it is tough to be at the top, we missed a good opportunity, we didn't play in the way we have shown. We played well in the second half but in the first half we needed to be more aggressive."