Ryder Cup star ‘itching’ to return following ‘weird’ injury lay off after surgery​

New York City FC‘s $780 million, 25,000-seat venue that the club intends to open next to the New York Mets‘ Citi Field in 2027 will be named Etihad Park under a 20-year agreement announced Thursday with Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates.

The Major League Soccer team’s controlling owner is City Football Group, the parent company of England’s Manchester City. The Premier League team’s venue was renamed Etihad Stadium in July 2011.

NYCFC president Brad Sims said revenue from the deal will go to the MLS team and not the parent company or English club, which is under investigation by the Premier League for alleged violations of financial fair play rules.

Etihad has been NYCFC’s shirt sponsor since 2014 and Manchester City’s since 2009-10, a season after the Abu Dhabi United Group took control.

“It’s a 100% New York City FC deal,” Sims said. “Etihad Airways has been essentially our premiere, our principal and founding partner since Day 1 at the club here. … We wanted to ideally stay with someone who is a current partner of New York City FC and or someone in the City Football Group family but Etihad was easily kind of the No. 1 focus that we’ve had all along.”

Etihad also has collaborated with NYCFC on community initiatives.

“They’ve been interested for quite some time about this stadium in New York and really buying into, I think, the path of travel of the sport in this country, in the New York market specifically,” Sims said. “For them the New York market, the New York City market is a very strategic commercial market.”

Since taking the field in 2015, NYCFC has played home games primarily at Yankee Stadium, home of the Major League Baseball team that is a minority investor in NYCFC.

But because of schedule conflicts, NYCFC has played some home matches at Citi Field, the home of the rival New York Red Bulls in Harrison, New Jersey, and Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut.

Saturday’s Eastern Conference semifinal against the rival New York Red Bulls will be at Citi Field because Notre Dame is playing Army in a college football game at Yankee Stadium.

NYCFC announced the site in 2022. The New York City Council approved the soccer stadium in April as part of a Willets Point redevelopment that includes 2,500 housing units, a new public school, hotel and retail stores. Bulldozers and cranes are involved in pre-construction, lease negotiations with New York City are progressing and a groundbreaking is likely before the end of the year, according to Sims.

Mets owner Steve Cohen is among the bidders for a license to build a casino in an area adjacent to Citi Field.

“The more activity that can happen in development in Willets Point and make it a live-work-and-play neighborhood, the better,” Sims said.

Sims said when NYCFC is home first in a day, there has to be a six-hour buffer before a Mets game can start. When the Mets are home first, there has to be a seven-hour buffer before soccer can kick off.

Similar parameters exist with the U.S. Tennis Association for the US Open.

Sims said the new stadium will benefit NYCFC if MLS switches to an August-to-May schedule, aligning with most European soccer leagues, from its current February-to-December calendar.

“There’s a lot of pros to doing that. The cons mostly reside in cold-weather cities that have outdoor stadiums,” Sims said. “I think for us with the new stadium we would likely be relatively insulated, at least in the early — at least in the first five-, 10-plus years just with kind of excitement around the stadium.”

2026 World Cup

MLS season-ticket holders will have priority access to hospitality tickets for the 2026 World Cup.

“All MLS season members, season-ticket holders, corporate partners and such will have a kind of presale access, these opportunities ahead of the marketplace to purchase suites, club seats, hospitality-type products at all games in all markets throughout the 2026 World Cup,” Sims said.

“That’s something that I think is a great benefit to our season-ticket members and to our sponsors and corporate partners. … We’re in the marketplace actively marketing 2025 City memberships and that’s going to be another benefit of that.”

Reece James has suffered another hamstring injury and will miss Chelsea‘s trip to face Leicester in the Premier League this weekend, head coach Enzo Maresca said in a news conference on Thursday.

James, 24, has suffered from frequent muscular injuries over the past few seasons and only returned from a five-month layoff in Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat to Liverpool on Oct. 20.

“We have for sure just one injured player, that is Reece. Unfortunately, he felt something small and we don’t want to take any risk for the weekend,” Maresca said

“So it’s only one for sure is the only one for sure that is not available for this weekend. The rest, some of them are better, some of them are still a doubt. We have to see.”

Asked about the exact nature of the injury, Maresca said: “Hamstring. It’s a muscular problem. We don’t want to take, as I said, any risks for this weekend. Hopefully it’s not something long.”

The Chelsea captain played just 482 minutes of first-team football last season as hamstring injuries kept him on the sidelines. He underwent surgery in an attempt to correct the issues in December 2023, before he picked up another hamstring injury during the club’s preseason tour of the United States this summer.

Maresca said on Oct. 18 that he was looking to ease James back into the first-team picture slowly by initially limiting his match time as he felt the player’s body cannot cope with two matches in a week.

Since his return, James started consecutive games against Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester United and played the last eight minutes of Chelsea’s draw with Arsenal before the international break.

James called the setback “another challenge” but insisted he would be back.

“This message is to the people that understand & have respect for what I’m going through … I appreciate you so much, your support and kind messages go further than you could ever imagine,” James wrote on Instagram.

“I’m doing okay, been better and also been worse. Another challenge ahead accepted. Eventually I’ll come out on top. Against all odds.”>

Saturday’s match at the King Power Stadium represents Maresca’s first return to face the team he led to the Championship title and promotion to the Premier League last season. He was appointed as Chelsea’s new head coach on May 31.

He said he is “excited” to face his old side and still talks to some of his former colleagues at the club.

“I’m excited and thankful, it was a fantastic season. The owner, his family are fantastic people. They care for players, staff, all of the people that work in the club. You can see that,” Maresca said.

“It was a fantastic season because I met good people. There was a fantastic connection between the players and staff, and that is something you have to create to be successful. I’m still in contact with them, it was fantastic.”

Asked if he felt he has become a better coach since leaving Leicester, Maresca said: “To be honest, I work every day to become better. I hope [so] because I like to see things and analyse. We try to improve players but also improve staff. I try to improve every day.

“I don’t know if I’m better or worse, but I’m always curious to see things and study. That’s the only thing I focus on.”

Chelsea are third in the Premier League after 11 matches, nine points behind leaders Liverpool. Leicester are 15th, three points above the relegation zone.