Henry on European award list

Thierry Henry heads a list of 10 English-based players among the 50 nominations for the European Footballer of the Year award, which were announced yesterday by France Football magazine.

Henry, the Premiership's leading goalscorer last season, is joined by his Arsenal and France team-mates Patrick Vieira and Sylvain Wiltord but there was no nomination for another of Arsenal's Frenchmen, the Footballer of the Year Robert Pires, who has only recently recovered from a knee injury that forced him to miss the World Cup finals in the summer.

Manchester United have four representatives – David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand and Ruud van Nistelrooy – on the list. Liverpool's Michael Owen and El Hadj Diouf are also put forward, along with Fulham's Junichi Inamoto, who had a good World Cup with Japan. Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos were among seven of Brazil's World Cup-winning squad to be nominated.

Aston Villa's goalkeeper, Peter Enckelman, has signed an extended contract which runs until June 2006.

David Batty, frozen out of the Leeds United midfield under the managership of Terry Venables, has aggravated a chronic patella tendon problem which will make him unavailable for about six weeks.

Leeds' 19-year-old midfield prospect Jamie McMaster has joined Coventry City on a one-month loan deal.

Patrik Berger, the Liverpool midfielder, is being assessed by the club's medical staff after suffering a knee injury in Monday's reserve encounter at Birmingham.

Leicester City will not to allow Millwall fans to attend the First Division game between the two clubs at the Walkers Stadium on 14 December. The decision has been made in the interests of public safety after discussions with Leicestershire police.

The fixture will be all ticket for home supporters only, with no tickets being sold on the day of the match. Leicester fans were excluded from the Foxes' match against Millwall at the New Den last Saturday.