West Ham may lose James for entire season

When David James collided with Martin Keown one minute into his appearance as an England substitute on Wednesday, the implications went beyond the 2-0 defeat to the Netherlands. Keown is doubtful for tomorrow's start of the Premiership ­ but James may miss the whole season.

West Ham's new signing has damaged knee ligaments and will be missing for at least three months following the collision. An examination yesterday detected medial ligament trouble ­ and possibly cruciate damage, too, which would mean a worse prognosis.

James may need a keyhole operation, and the Hammers manager, Glenn Roeder, is already planning for being without James for the first part of the season. Yesterday he was looking for short-term alternatives: Shaka Hislop may earn a recall after the setback to his status at the club when James was signed from Aston Villa, while Steven Bywater may have to be brought back from a loan spell at Wolves. West Ham will seek compensation from the Football Association for James's injury, which amounts to around £100,000 a month.

Keown is concerned whether he will be fit for Arsenal's Premiership opener at Middlesbrough. "I really thought I'd done something serious," he said yesterday. "But I'm hoping now that I've just jarred the knee through over-extending it and we will see what happens in the next few days."

The ankle injury which forced Boudewijn Zenden out of Wednesday's game does not appear to be serious. The Dutchman, hoping to make his League debut for Chelsea this weekend after his £7.5m move from Barcelona, limped off minutes before half-time after a fierce challenge by Jamie Carragher.

The Football League has rejected Wimbledon's application to relocate to Milton Keynes. The First Division club had plans to build a 28,000-capacity stadium in the Buckingham-shire town.

Supporters of the Dons, who share Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park, protested against the proposal during last Saturday's win over Birmingham.

The League also rejected Brentford's application to ground-share with Woking, and ruled that they would not accept the winner of the Football Conference's play-off system into the Football League.

Argentina have secured their place at the World Cup with a 2-0 win over Ecuador in Quito thanks to goals from the Manchester United midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron and Hernan Crespo. Brazil put themselves back on course by beating Paraguay 2-0. They stay fourth in the group but close the gap on third-placed Paraguay.

Ipswich have completed the £3.1m signing of Real Mallorca's Nigerian winger Finidi George, who is eligible to play at Sunderland tomorrow.

The Leicester captain, Matt Elliott, has signed a one-year extension to his contract, which has three years left.

The Football Association will not take any action against Sheffield Wednesday after four fans ran on to the pitch in Sunday's defeat by Burnley. Wednesday banned one fan for life from Hillsborough after he approached Burnley's Paul Cook.

Hearts' Slovakian midfielder Robert Tomaschek will miss the rest of the season with cruciate knee ligament damage.

Monaco have signed Everton's Ghanaian midfielder Alex Nyarko on a one-year loan deal.