Sporting Digest: Football

IAN BAIRD, the Bristol City striker, is suffering from a collapsed lung and has been detained in hospital. The injury was sustained on Monday in a collision with Gordon Marshall, the Stoke City goalkeeper, though Baird completed that game and his injury was only diagnosed when he went to hospital for a check-up yesterday. Baird will miss Saturday's FA Cup third-round home tie with Liverpool and is expected to be out for two or three weeks.

DEAN YATES, Notts County's former England Under-21 defender, has had his comeback from a serious knee injury interrupted by further surgery. Yates, who recently returned to the reserve team after almost two years out of the game with severe ligament damage which led to a total knee restructuring, had a cyst removed from the troublesome knee and will be out for a further two to three weeks.

MONDAY'S LATE RESULTS: Unijet Sussex County League First Division: Bexhill 1 Hailsham 3. Northern Counties East League Premier Division: Armthorpe 2 Pickering 0; Denaby 0 Brigg 0; Eccleshill 1 Glasshoughton 1; North Ferriby 2 Maltby 1; Ossett Town 0 Belper 1 (abandoned 55 min); Pontefract 2 Thackley 2; Winterton 1 Lincoln United 1.