Napoli

Napoli midfielder Kevin de Bruyne is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines after undergoing surgery on the thigh injury he sustained while scoring a penalty against Inter Milan.

The 34-year-old clutched the back of his right thigh after opening the scoring in the 33rd minute on Saturday and was substituted a few minutes later.

The Belgium playmaker was taken to hospital where scans revealed a high-grade tear to his bicep femoris, a hamstring muscle at the back of the thigh.

Napoli confirmed that De Bruyne underwent successful surgery on Wednesday in Antwerp, Belgium, and will begin the first phase of his rehabilitation in Belgium.

Reigning champions Napoli, who beat Inter Milan 3-1 to return to the top of Serie A, have not put a timeline on his return to action.

De Bruyne joined Napoli on a free transfer from Manchester City in June.

He has scored four goals in eight league appearances and made a further three appearances in the Champions League.

When Kostas Tsimikas swept in Greece’s goal on 62 minutes, it followed a passage of play that involved Greece making 54 almost unchallenged passes over three minutes during which Andy Robertson’s glancing header to clear a cross was the only Scottish touch.

It typified the passiveness of the first hour.

“I wonder whether Steve will look at bringing Billy Gilmour on,” McCann had already said at the break.

“I don’t think it’s worked with Ryan [Christie] and Lewis [Ferguson] playing really narrow and deep, because they’ve not got on it. We’ve not been able to build the game going through.”

Gilmour did not come on and suddenly grab the game by the scruff of the neck and change things on his own, but nonetheless his influence was there after Christie’s equaliser.

His first real opportunity to get his head up and pass was on 69 minutes and he fired it through a tight space to Ferguson, whose first-time pass round the corner just evaded Che Adams as Scotland sprung forward quickly.

Gilmour’s clever free-kick also teed up Adams for a good chance at 1-1 and he ended up with five passes into the final third during his half hour on the pitch.

Only Robertson and Ferguson had more – and they played nearly the full game.

“I think Billy Gilmour coming on was pivotal in terms of us getting hold of the ball,” McCann said at full-time on BBC Scotland’s Sportscene.

“He was instrumental in the cross-field pass which Tsimikas takes out Ferguson when he eventually scores.”

As McCann described, Gilmour’s prints were on the build-up to the second goal as his positioning allowed Grant Hanley to find a pass to him between two Greece players.

He turned and moved it forward to Christie, got it back, moved the ball to Robertson, before executing the crucial pass once McTominay returned it to him.

Tsimikas fouled Ferguson and the Bologna man did brilliantly to take his chance in the box from the free-kick as Scotland hit the front.

RUBEN AMORIM has told wantaway Kobbie Mainoo: “You have to do better.”

Midfielder Mainoo, 20, was keen to quit Manchester United before the transfer deadline because boss Amorim is not giving him enough game time.

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Italian champs Napoli were interested but the Red Devils were unwilling to sanction a loan exit for the England star.

Amorim ignored Mainoo while the window was still open but had a heart-to-heart during the international break — telling him he is not the finished product and could do more.

The Portuguese coach, whose side face Manchester City in today’s Manchester derby at the Etihad, said: “Like a lot of guys, he wants to play more. 

“I didn’t have a conversation with him before the window closed but I did this week. 

“I didn’t want him thinking I was having the conversation just to hold on to him. Some people think he is there but I think he can do so much better. 

“For some guys it’s enough, for him it’s not enough. Maybe it’s not fair but I think I’m helping Kobbie Mainoo.

“I have the same feeling that you have. That he’s a top, top player. But he can be so much better. So I’m focused on that.

“He’s not used to fighting for his place, maybe. He is uncomfortable but he is a very good kid — and he is fighting.”

Mainoo looked set for superstardom when he scored for his boyhood club in their FA Cup final win over City and then started for England in  the Euro 2024 final, despite defeat to Spain.

Amorim added: “I know he started the final of the European Championship in a team that has a lot of talented players.

“Phil Foden played that game. Cole Palmer was on the bench. He was playing. But sometimes I have  a different way of seeing the game.”

The ex-Sporting Lisbon boss explained where he thinks Mainoo can improve.

The United boss added: “He needs to have the technical ability that he has but he  needs more pace. 

“He needs to play at different speeds. Sometimes he’s slower and sometimes he’s faster. He can improve on that.

“And then he has to beat Bruno Fernandes. He has to beat Casemiro and Manuel Ugarte. They are good players also. I need to choose.”

Amorim pointed to fellow Portuguese Vitinha, Paris Saint-Germain’s midfield general, as a player who once struggled but is now thriving.

He said: “Sometimes it’s about the opinion of a coach. I remember Vitinha was not playing for Wolves. Nowadays, Vitinha is maybe the best midfielder in the world.”

Man Utd’s transfer deals

IN

• Bryan Mbeumo – from Brentford – £71m
• Matheus Cunha – from Wolves – £62.5m
• Diego Leon – from Cerro Porteno – £7m
• Benjamin Sesko – from RB Leipzig – £74m
• Senne Lammens – from Royal Antwerp – £18m

TOTAL – £232.5m

OUT

• Alejandro Garnacho – to Chelsea – £40m
• Marcus Rashford – to Barcelona – Loan
• Victor Lindelof – released
• Christian Eriksen – released
• Toby Collyer – to West Brom – Loan

TOTAL – £40m

MAN UTD TRANSFER NEWS LIVE

The 51-year-old, from Scotland, was reported to Italian authorities after a guide spotted him “picking up pieces of Pompeii pavement” during an evening tour

A British tourist caught stuffing six forbidden fragments from Pompeii in his backpack faces a huge fine.

The 51-year-old, from Scotland, was reported to Italian authorities after a guide spotted him “picking up pieces of pavement” during an evening tour on Thursday. He had illegally collected the stones from the ancient Roman archaeological site.

He was caught outside the Pompeii excavation site near the Villa dei Misteri EAV station. Fortunately, the items were recovered and returned to the park.

“He said he had no idea it was forbidden to remove artefacts from Pompeii,” a police officer said. “He was trying to get out of trouble but it did not work. It is pretty easy to understand you cannot do that because if everyone wandered off with a piece of Pompeii there would be nothing left,” he added.

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The unnamed man now faces a fine of over £1,200 and could face up to six years in prison if he is summoned to court.

Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, said: “Congratulations and thanks to the attentive tour guide, to our excellent custodians and security staff, and to the Carabinieri for this collaborative effort to protect our heritage.”

Pompeii is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world, with 2.5 million tourists visiting each year. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. hit Pompeii, burying it under volcanic ash.

It comes after a mosaic panel on travertine slabs, depicting an erotic theme from the Roman era, was returned to the archaeological park of Pompeii last month, after being stolen by a Nazi German captain during World War II.

The artwork was repatriated from Germany through diplomatic channels, arranged by the Italian Consulate in Stuttgart, Germany, after having been returned from the heirs of the last owner, a deceased German citizen.

The owner had received the mosaic as a gift from a Wehrmacht captain, assigned to the military supply chain in Italy during the war.

The mosaic — dating between mid- to last century B.C. and the first century — is considered a work of “extraordinary cultural interest,” experts said.

“It is the moment when the theme of domestic love becomes an artistic subject,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii and co-author of an essay dedicated to the returned work. “While the Hellenistic period, from the fourth to the first century B.C., exulted the passion of mythological and heroic figures, now we see a new theme.”