Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - All Blacks midfield back Jack Goodhue will be sidelined for the rest of the year.

Scans have confirmed Goodhue ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the first-half of the Crusaders' golden point Super Rugby Aotearoa win over the Hurricanes.

All Blacks prop Joe Moody may be able to return to rugby in the not too distant future after he too limped off the field early in the match.

Moody has been diagnosed with a significant injury to the soft tissues at the base of his big toe, but at this stage he doesn't require surgery.

He will be reassessed by a specialist in two weeks' time, when a timeframe for his return will become clearer.

Breakers heading home

The New Zealand Breakers are returning home to play seven games in the Australian National Basketball League next month.

The players have been based in Australia since December and after moving state to state are currently in Tasmania.

The last time the team played at home was pre-Covid in Christchurch on February 14th last year.

It will be a hectic home schedule of back-to-back games starting on May 20th against the Sydney Kings and ending against the Cairns Taipans on June 5th.

The venues for the home games are yet to be decided.

-RNZ

Liverpool knocked out of Champion's League

Liverpool have been dumped out of Champions League after drawing nil-all with Real Madrid in the second-leg of their quarter-final to lose the tie 3-1 on aggregate.

A draw was all Madrid needed to move to the next stage after they convincingly won the first-leg 3-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Liverpool now have no chance of winning a trophy this season as they sit in sixth-place in the English Premier League having already been knocked out of both English cup competitions.

Madrid will take on Chelsea in the semi-finals where the Spanish side will continue their campaign for a record 13th Champions League victory.

Manchester City beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 to advance to the semi-finals.

City will play Paris Saint-Germain for a a place in the final.

Babar Azam number one

Captain Babar Azam hit a record-breaking 122 to lead Pakistan to an impressive nine-wicket victory over hosts South Africa at Centurion and a 2-1 lead in the four-match Twenty20 series.

It came on the same day as he ended India counterpart Virat Kohli's more than three-year reign as the top ranked one-day batsman in the latest official rankings.

The 26-year-old is the third Pakistan batsman to achieve the honour following in the footsteps of Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad and Mohammad Yousuf.

Babar and Kohli are currently the only two batsmen in the top six in all three formats.

On the ground today, Mohammad Rizwan scored an unbeaten 73 as he and Babar, whose century came off 49 balls, shared a record 197-run partnership in a devastating display of batting that enabled the touring side to reel in South Africa's competitive 203-5 with consummate ease.

They won with two overs to spare after making 205-1, dispatching the home bowling to all corners of the ground.

The last match of the series and Pakistan's tour will also be played at Centurion, on Friday.

-Reuters

Kaino up for award

Former All Blacks flanker Jerome Kaino has been nominated for the European rugby player of the year award.

The 38-year-old has helped guide Toulouse to the semi-finals of Europe's Champions Cup.

Of the 15 nominees there are five from another French club La Rochelle, four from Toulouse and four from Leinster.

Grégory Alldritt (La Rochelle), Levani Botia (La Rochelle), Antoine Dupont (Toulouse), Tadhg Furlong (Leinster Rugby), Kevin Gourdon (La Rochelle), Robbie Henshaw (Leinster Rugby), Matthieu Jalibert (Bordeaux-Bègles), Jerome Kaino (Toulouse), Hugo Keenan (Leinster Rugby), Julien Marchand (Toulouse), Kotaro Matsushima (ASM Clermont Auvergne), Romain Ntamack (Toulouse), Raymond Rhule (La Rochelle), Will Skelton (La Rochelle), Josh van der Flier (Leinster Rugby)

The list will be reduced to five players in early May, following the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup semi-finals, by a combination of the public vote and the verdict of the judges.

The voting will then re-open and the winner of the 2021 award will be announced following the Champions Cup final on Saturday May 22nd.

Streak banned for eight years

Former Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak was slapped with an eight-year ban for corruption dating back to his coaching stints with the national team and in several Twenty20 leagues.

The 47-year-old admitted five breaches of the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption code and agreed the sanction, the ICC said in a statement.

"As a former captain and coach, he held a position of trust and owed a duty to uphold the integrity of the game," Alex Marshall, ICC General Manager of Integrity Unit, said in the statement.

"He breached the Code on several occasions, including facilitating the approach of four other players. At times, he also sought to obstruct and delay our investigation."

The games under scanner included several international matches in 2018 as well as matches in Twenty20 leagues in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Streak played 65 tests and 189 one-day internationals for Zimbabwe between 1993-2005.

-Reuters

Neymar to stay in Paris

Paris St Germain forward Neymar pledged his future to the Ligue 1 champions, saying talks of a contract renewal at the club are no longer an issue.

PSG smashed the world record transfer fee when they spent $372 million in 2017 to bring Neymar from La Liga giants Barcelona.

The Brazil international has since won three league titles, two French Cups and was also part of the PSG team that reached the Champions League final last season.

The 29-year-old, whose contract is due to expire in June next year, called the Parisian club his "home".

PSG reached the Champions League semi-finals despite a 1-0 home defeat by holders Bayern Munich yesterday as they progressed on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate result.

-Reuters

Rafa has no concerns about catching Covid

Rafa Nadal said he was not worried about contracting Covid-19 despite having trained with Daniil Medvedev, who was forced to withdraw from this week's Monte Carlo Masters after a positive test.

Russian Medvedev, who was seeded second at the ATP Masters 1000 event, was put in isolation on Tuesday, a day after he practised with world number three Nadal.

"I was not worried because I practised with him, but I was never close to him," Nadal said after his second-round victory over Federico Delbonis. "When these things happen, it is not good. But I felt sorry for him more than for me.

Spaniard Nadal, chasing a record-extending 12th title in Monte Carlo, showed little rust in his first competitive match since his Australian Open quarter-final loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas, sweeping past Argentine Delbonis 6-1 6-2.

Up next for the 20-times Grand Slam champion is a clash with former world number three Grigor Dimitrov, whom he has defeated in 13 of their 14 tour meetings.

-Reuters