Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - Fulham's return to the English Premier League has last just one season after they were relegated following a 2-0 loss to Burnley at Craven Cottage.

All White Chris Wood scored one of Burnley's goals.

The loss left Fulham in 18th spot on 27 points, 10 behind Southampton with three games left to play, while Burnley rose from 17th to 14th on 39 points.

Despite plenty of possession, Fulham failed to create many decent scoring chances and return directly to the Championship after a single season in the top flight, where they will join West Bromwich Albion, who were relegated at the weekend after losing to Arsenal, and bottom side Sheffield United.

Burnley will play Premier League football for the sixth successive season.

It was Wood's 12th goal of the Premier League season and takes him up to tenth equal in the Golden Boot standings.

New faces expected in England team to play Black Caps

The England Test side to face the Black Caps next month could include a number of new faces.

The two nations meet in a two-Test series before the New Zealanders then take on India in the World Test Championship final.

Ashley Giles, the manging director of England's men's team has hinted that they'll use the series to look at some new players.

"What we do know and what's not going to change is that given the weight of cricket, given the Ashes series, and we don't know what conditions that's going to be played in with regard to a Covid environment, we are going to need a bigger group of players," Giles said. "We may also choose against New Zealand to look at some new faces."

Several of England's Test prospects, notably Chris Woakes, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali, are currently serving a quarantine period which ends at the weekend, while a few more - Ben Stokes, who is definitely out of the series, Dom Sibley, Olly Stone and Jofra Archer - are injury doubts.

The New Zealand squad leaves this weekend and will join up with those who were involved in the IPL.

The first Test against England is at Lord's starting on June 2nd, followed by a Test at Edgbaston starting on June 10th, with the Test Championship final against India in Southampton starting on June 18th.

-BBC

All Blacks won't play Italy

Italy have officially cancelled their rugby tour of New Zealand in July due to concerns around travelling during the coronavirus pandemic.

The loss of the two test matches against the All Blacks leaves New Zealand Rugby scrambling to save their July test window.

It has been reported that New Zealand Rugby has been trying to line up games against Fiji and Samoa.

"After constructive consultations between our federations and health authorities, to our deep regret, the current conditions made it preferable to concentrate energies at home ahead of the autumn series," FIR President Marzio Innocenti said in a statement.

Italy has registered 122,694 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and seventh-highest in the world.

The country is still struggling to contain the virus, having reported 224 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday against 207 the previous day, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections fell to 10,176 from 10,554.

-Reuters

Finns running behind schedule

A second day of racing at the Finn Gold Cup sailing regatta in Portugal has been lost to the weather.

New Zealand's Andy Maloney leads the regatta after the three races on the first day, while 2019 champion Josh Junior is in fifth place.

Atlantic storms brought very unstable conditions to Porto.

Organisers tried for more than four hours to get racing, however they had to contend with 120 degree wind shits and changed the course a dozen times before it was called off.

There are two more days left in the regatta, which doubles as the World Championship, with a maximum six races possible and one more needed to get a valid series.

Conditions are expected to improve tomorrow.

The results at the Finn Gold Cup will decide who out of Maloney or Junior will represent New Zealand at the Olympics.

Portugal set to host Champions League final

Portugal is a strong candidate to host the Champions League football final after Uefa did not gain guarantees of exemptions it wants to move the game to Wembley.

Uefa, UK government officials and the Football Association met on Monday to discuss moving the game between Chelsea and Manchester City from Istanbul.

Uefa has decided it will be moved after Turkey was put on England's red travel list meaning fans cannot travel.

Portugal is on the green list so fans would be allowed to attend on 29 May.

The match could still be played at Wembley but it would require a major shift from the government, who have so far failed to reach an agreement with Uefa.

European football's governing body feels in Portugal it is going to be easier to gain access for sponsors and broadcasters, who would need to be compensated if they were unable to attend the game.

Porto has been mentioned as a potential venue but it is understood Lisbon, which hosted last year's final, is also a possibility.

Travellers from England to green-list countries must follows rules before departure but do not have to quarantine on their return.

UK citizens returning from red-list countries are required to quarantine at a government-approved hotel for 10 days.

-BBC

Mystics dominate Pulse

A third quarter blitz by the Northern Mystics has resulted a 58-47 win over the Pulse in their ANZ Premiership netball game in Wellington.

The Pulse led 27-23 at half time, but were outscored 22-8 in the third quarter.

The Mystics remain in second place, behind the Northern Stars, with three wins from four games while the Pulse are fourth with one win.

Much of the kudos went to teenaged goal shoot Grace Nweke, who had one of her best games of the season, taking on more than the lion's share of the Mystics shooting. Showing balance, strength and accuracy under the hoop, she ended the game with 51 from 55 shots at 93 percent.

The Pulse had trouble stopping the flow of ball to Nweke, while the Mystics defence was strong throughout the court.

Bevin just misses podium in Italy

New Zealand cyclist Patrick Bevin has finished fifth on stage three of the Giro d'Italia.

Bevin was a part of the chase group which just failed to catch Taco van der Hoorn who had made a breakaway with nine km's to go on the 190km stage from Biella to Canale.

Bevin, who rides for Israel Start-up Nation, just missed out on a podium with his team-mate Davide Cimolai of Italy taking second and Slovakian Peter Sagan finishing third.

Italian Filippo Ganna holds onto the overall leader's pink jersey for a third day after completing a rain-soaked stage safely in the peloton.

Norway's Tobias Foss climbed into second place in the general classification, 16 seconds down on Ganna, after leapfrogging fellow Team Jumbo-Visma rider Edoardo Affini, who lost time and dropped down the rankings.

Ganna, the world time-trial champion, is expected to relinquish the overall lead in the fourth stage to Sestola, which ends with a steep, 4.3km climb and a 2.5km dash to the finish.

New Zealand's George Bennett is 37th overall, 44 seconds behind Ganna, while Bevin is another two seconds back in 46th place.

-RNZ/Reuters

Ko to take a break

New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko said she will skip the next two events on the LPGA Tour as she steps up her preparations ahead of the U.S. Women's Open in June.

World number eight Ko was in contention to win the Honda LPGA Thailand last weekend when she was two shots off the lead going into the final round but could only finish tied 10th behind winner Ariya Jutanugarn.

Ko, who won the Lotte Championship last month, will skip the Pure Silk Championship in Virginia and a Matchplay event in Las Vegas as she looks to secure her third major title at the June 3-6 U.S. Open in San Francisco, California.

"It's been a long stretch of events, so I'm looking forward to taking three weeks off and getting ready for the next stretch," the 24-year-old said.

Korean-born Ko last won a major at the 2016 ANA Inspiration.

-Reuters