Macklin Celebrini gets proverbial torch pass from Connor McDavid for … — and more

The kid just keeps getting it done.

Manchester United coach Marc Skinner has revealed defender Anna Sandberg will be out for up to eight weeks with the knee injury she sustained in the Champions League play-off first leg tie with Atletico Madrid in Spain last week.

Sandberg had to go off at half-time in United's 3-0 victory.

It was initially felt the Sweden full-back had suffered a calf problem.

However, looking ahead to the return game at Leigh, Skinner confirmed it was a knee-related issue that will keep Sandberg out for at least four weeks and possibly quite a bit longer, ruling her out of the FA Cup trip to Chelsea on 22 February and next month's League Cup final against the same opposition.

"There's a little bit of a tidy up that needs to be done around Anna's meniscus," he said.

"From the time frame we've been given, the best is four, the middle is six and obviously the worst case is eight.

"If it was eight, she would probably be back three or four games before the end of the season.

"We're hopeful we can get it to six but won't take any risk. She's a young player so we'll make sure she's rehabbed effectively."

The 22-year-old joined United in 2024 and has become one of the key figures in Skinner's side.

She was replaced by experienced former Everton player Gabby George for the Women's Super League victory over London City Lionesses on Sunday.

Sandberg will also miss Sweden's World Cup qualifiers with Italy and Serbia next month.

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Nobody could blame the doctors for telling 13-year-old Jake Canter he should never step on a snowboard again.

Nobody could blame 22-year-old Jake Canter for ignoring them.

Nine years after enduring a traumatic brain injury, the result of getting kicked in the head in a freak accident on a trampoline at an action-sports camp, that 22-year-old U.S. rider won the Olympic bronze medal in his sport's trick-filled trip down the hill — slopestyle.

That third-place finish Wednesday stamped an exclamation point on one of those only-at-the-Olympics kind of stories. It also exposed the flaw in all those dire diagnoses back then: The doctors were looking at Canter's brain when they should have checked his heart.

“I really just hope I made 13-year-old me lying in that hospital bed proud,” Canter said. “This is for him, and everyone who supported me.”

The accident fractured Canter's skull in four places. He ended up in a coma for four days. He lost hearing in his right ear. Six months later, after therapy, some of it on a snowboard, was beginning to help him regain his bearings, Canter felt an earache come on. That was the first symptom of meningitis.

Another coma followed, again for four days. In the end, he needed surgery in which doctors put bone cement in his skull and his right ear, gutting his equilibrium and forcing him to relearn how to walk, how to talk.

But how to snowboard?

“There were only so many people who believed I could go do the stuff I was doing prior to everything," Canter said. "I wanted to prove every doctor wrong that told me I couldn't do this. That's a big part of this.”

Canter's bronze medal did not come on the prettiest day for snowboarding, or for slopestyle.

Twelve riders took three runs each down the course that has been lightly panned all week for a too-big rails section and a trio of jumps that are tightly bunched together, making it harder for the athletes to gather speed and throw their biggest tricks.

So when Canter, facing an all-or-nothing gamble for the podium on his third and final run, threw the day's only 1980-degree spin off the last jump, it made for compelling theater. When he landed it, things got better.

He thrust his arms to the heavens and snapped his goggles off. He screamed “Let's Go!” then went to snowboarding's version of the “Kiss and Cry” area.

Judges took a full three minutes evaluating that run to see if it belonged on the podium. The score came up; they agreed it did. Su Yiming of China won gold while Taiga Hasegawa of Japan took silver.

About an hour later, Canter told the story of the traumatic brain injury and ticked off some other injuries — compound fractures to his right arm and a broken left hand that he rode with at the Olympics.

Not all of them have involved bones and fractures.

He told of a snowboarding friend who died from suicide in 2021. Canter, who grew up in the mountains of Colorado, has that friend's birthday tattooed on his left wrist.

“I didn't have a car at the time, he'd drive 45 minutes out of his way, take me to the resort,” Canter said. “We spent a lot of time traveling together when we were younger. So, this is a special win for him.”

Canter conceded that so much trauma over such a short life has taken its emotional toll. Mental health, a topic that has gained traction in Olympic circles in recent years, is something he's fine talking about. Sometimes, to get away from it all, therapy involved simply getting on a board and riding.

“It’s the freedom it gives you, because you’re in control,” Canter said. “I can express myself a lot through my snowboarding. I feel more myself when I’m on my snowboard, as well.”

On a magical day in Italy, snowboarding gave him yet another gift — maybe brought a few new fans along for the ride, too.

“I'm so lucky to be standing up here, and I'm showcasing my skills to the world,” he said. “And this is the biggest stage to do it.”

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Shiffrin blew her competition out of the water in the slalom at the 2026 Winter Olympics.