Ex-Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has said he will not offer his former team any favours when he takes charge of Newcastle United against the Premier League chasing Reds on Saturday.

Benitez spent six seasons at Anfield and is fondly remembered on Merseyside for winning the club its fifth European Cup in 2005 -- but his Newcastle team now stands in the way of Liverpool's first league title since 1990.

- Wright Thompson: What a title means to Liverpool

- Ogden: Liverpool's ex-bosses could decide title

Liverpool must win their remaining two Premier League fixtures and hope Manchester City drop points in their final two games if they have any hope of lifting the title, but Benitez, who fell short of winning the league in 2008-09, said he will not be helping his former team by offering up three crucial points.

"I was clear in [last week's] interviews -- we are professional and have to do our job," Benitez said at a news conference on Friday.

"My relationship with the city of Liverpool, the club and the fans is there. At the same time, I have been to play Liverpool with Chelsea, with Newcastle, and we have to do our job.

"We have 52,000 [fans] in our stadium and it is the last home game of the season. Everyone understands we are professionals -- for everyone here, we want to win the game."

While Liverpool face one former manager in Benitez on Saturday, title rivals Manchester City play another in Brendan Rodgers' Leicester City on Monday night.

Rodgers also came close to ending Liverpool's wait for the title when his side finished 2nd in 2013-14, but City boss Pep Guardiola says he "cannot imagine" either manager not wanting to win their match this weekend.

Guardiola added that he will watch Liverpool's games against Newcastle -- the last team to take points off his side in January -- on Saturday before Leicester City's trip to the Etihad Stadium on Monday night.

"Brendan and Rafa were in Liverpool but they'll want to win," Guardiola said.

"I cannot imagine them not wanting to win the game, I don't have doubts the players and manager will want to win.

"The Leicester players will not come here for their holidays, maybe they have a chance to finish seventh and they will try to make a good game."

ESPN FC's Manchester City correspondent Jonathan Smith contributed to this report.

The next Liverpool manager to win the Premier League title will instantly earn legendary status at Anfield. Rafael Benitez almost did it 10 years ago, and Brendan Rodgers came within a Steven Gerrard slip of achieving it in 2014. Jurgen Klopp might be just over a week away from doing what Benitez and Rodgers were ultimately unable to, but the penultimate games of this season see his two recent predecessors handed a decisive role in either ending Liverpool's title ambitions for another year or giving them the opportunity to beat Manchester City to top spot on the final day.

If Benitez's Newcastle defeat Liverpool at St James' Park on Saturday, City could clinch the title with a win at home to Rodgers' Leicester on Monday. A draw for Benitez and co would virtually end Liverpool's hopes as City would be three points clear with a healthy goal-difference advantage and just one game to go.

Even if things don't go the Reds' way this season and they don't claim their first league title since 1989-90, their fingerprints will still be all over the trophy as it returns to Manchester.

- Wright Thompson: What a title would mean to Liverpool
- Ogden: Liverpool made Messi angry and paid the price
- Premier League sprint to the finish: All the info

However, if Liverpool claim all three points, City will face Leicester knowing that anything but a victory would leave Klopp's men in pole position going into the final round of fixtures on May 12, when Liverpool host Wolves at Anfield and City travel to Brighton. The scenarios thrown up over the next few days offer a delicious late twist to the most compelling title race in years.

Benitez and Rodgers are both still held in high esteem by many Liverpool supporters -- both have their detractors, too -- so would surely not want to be the ones responsible for delivering the killer blow to Liverpool's title ambitions. Though as driven professionals with their own points to prove at their respective clubs, it's hard to know if they would also get a sense of satisfaction in deciding the title race and potentially denying Klopp.

It is a complex story for both Benitez and Rodgers, the two managers of Liverpool's recent past who did the most to get the club back competing for the biggest honours.

Benitez is already regarded as an iconic figure in the eyes of the majority of Liverpool supporters, having guided the club to their fifth, and most recent, Champions League title in 2005, when his team fought back from 3-0 down at half-time against AC Milan to lift the trophy in Istanbul. The Spaniard's image adorns flags on The Kop -- alongside those of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish -- and his bond with the supporters has remained firm despite his sacking in 2010. His family's home is still near Liverpool, the same place he lived when he was the Reds' manager, and he has attended several Hillsborough memorials in the years since leaving.

In 2008-09, Benitez came within a whisker of winning the title, before Liverpool ended up four points adrift of champions Manchester United. But that team of Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso was arguably as exciting and formidable as the one that Klopp has built this season.

Benitez is well aware of his status among the Liverpool fan base, so he could be conflicted if his Newcastle team snuffs out his old club's title hopes. But he is also aware of his presence on those flags, as Liverpool's last major title-winning manager, so there may also be an element inside him that does not want to help elevate Klopp to a higher echelon. Speaking in his Monday news conference, he made it clear: "It's my responsibility to look after Newcastle and if I was on the other side, I would be expecting the opposition to do their best and the manager to try his best.

"You have to remember that all the teams have 38 games to do what they want to do."

It is a different story, and a different situation, for Rodgers. The Northern Irishman could have secured a job for life at Liverpool had his team got over the line in 2014, but Gerrard's slip to let Demba Ba score in a 2-0 defeat against Chelsea proved the crucial switch of momentum that enabled City to claim the title by two points.

History has judged Rodgers harshly, and often with ridicule -- his beatific presence in the "Being Liverpool" documentary, in particular, made him a target for cruel memes -- but he also built an outstanding team at Anfield with Luis Suarez the controversial star. Rodgers' work was pivotal in dragging Liverpool out of their post-Benitez slump and giving the club and supporters renewed belief that success could return. He was sacked in October 2015 and replaced by Klopp, but while a positive result for Leicester at City on Monday would help give his successor a lift onto the pedestal being prepared for him, it might also provide redemption for Rodgers and show his critics that he's worthy of respect at the highest level.

Rodgers had to move to Celtic, after a year off, to prove his ability to win at a big club, but at Leicester he will be focused on proving people wrong in the years ahead. Monday would certainly be the perfect time for him to start: with six wins, two defeats and one draw since Rodgers took over on Feb. 26, he certainly has shown he can motivate and shape a Leicester squad that managed just one league victory prior to his arrival. He's also refusing to act like his Foxes side will aid his former club in their path to glory.

"I haven't given [facing Man City] a great deal of thought," Rodgers said prior to last weekend's 3-0 win over Arsenal. "My job is to do Leicester a favour. Every game is important. Our only concern is ourselves."

Deep down, both Benitez and Rodgers forged positive connections with Liverpool that will outshine the negative, so it is difficult to imagine either of them wanting their old club to fail. But there will be an element of it, no matter what is said in public. Whatever happens, though, you can be certain that one of Klopp's predecessors will get to play a significant hand in the outcome of this season's title race.

Last summer, the Wayne Rooney effect was very real for D.C. United.

With the former England captain on board, the latter part of the season contained a verve and joy akin to an extended summer vacation. The Black and Red went 11-2-4 down the stretch to secure a playoff spot, a feat that seemed beyond DCU earlier in the season. The first-round playoff defeat to the Columbus Crew seemed a mere hiccup in terms of United's ascent back among the league's elite.

Ten games into 2019, the magic, both for Rooney and the team, has been harder to lock down. There have been stretches of dynamic play, mixed with D.C. getting backed into its own half for extended periods. The inconsistency has been such that a look at the Eastern Conference standings causes something of a double take. The rough patches, in particular a 4-0 home shellacking at the hands of LAFC, stick in the memory, and yet there sits D.C. United, tied for first place in the conference alongside the Philadelphia Union and the Montreal Impact. D.C. hosts Columbus on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN+) in hopes of remaining out front in the East.

"It's weird that we're still in first place in the East," said DCU defender Steven Birnbaum. "It doesn't feel like that for us because we've had a couple of bad losses. We're in a good position, but we think we can be much further up."

It's worth noting that United has been dealing with a normal schedule instead of the home-heavy slate from which it benefited during the back half of 2018. There have been injuries to the team's complement of outside backs, forcing a formation switch, which has had a ripple effect throughout the team. For that reason, D.C. manager Ben Olsen isn't sweating his team's current state.

"I think if you had asked me in January if I'd take 17 points at this point in the season, I'd probably be OK with that," he said. "It's been a little bit of a grind the last couple of weeks and we've chugged along."

The same has been true for Rooney. Year 2 was always bound to bring some different challenges. The travel will be felt more acutely. Teams are a bit more familiar with how Rooney and Luciano Acosta -- Robin to Rooney's Batman -- operate. But in terms of numbers, Rooney keeps on keeping on, with five goals and three assists in nine appearances. His value in the locker room remains solid gold.

"I think that's what so great about Wayne," Olsen said. "He's not a guy that's different from day to day, or week to week, or season to season. He does what he does. He's a good teammate. He's engaged in the process. He's engaged with his teammates, it matters to him, he's competitive, he shows up whether it's in training or in games. And he makes plays. He's respected by the group. People want to know: Has he changed? It's been more of the same."

Yet Rooney has no doubt suffered as a result of the injury bug claiming outside backs Chris McCann and Joseph Mora. Those injuries forced Olsen to go with three central defenders in the back. The wing-backs have found it more difficult to get into the attack, resulting in Rooney and Acosta getting isolated at times. There's also been a bit of Superhero Syndrome, where Rooney -- and, to a lesser extent, Acosta -- is expected to save the day.

"One of our issues is we need to threaten the space behind so now we can free up Lucho and Wayne," Olsen said. "At times we put too much weight and responsibility on those two being our offensive production. Now we have to find ways to come out in other areas on the field, with other players and positions to be real threats that other teams have to deal with to free up what we think is a very good duo."

There are also other factors. Birnbaum surmised that teams have been more physical with Acosta this season in a bid to disrupt DCU's rhythm, and the numbers back him up. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Acosta has been fouled 2.40 times per game this season compared to 1.97 in 2018. Acosta's contract situation -- his deal is up at the end of the season -- looms as well.

D.C. United has managed to ride out this stretch, although a trade reveals that Olsen is eager to return to the form and style that propelled the side last season, even in the opening weeks of the 2019 campaign. D.C. on Friday completed a deal to acquire outside back Marquinhos Pedroso from FC Dallas. That will allow United to revert to a four-back alignment.

"We certainly view [Pedroso] as that type of player, that's his best spot on the field," Olsen said about the presumptive left-back. "It does give us that flexibility to move back until Joseph [Mora] returns. Then it's also important to have two quality guys in every position. I think that [trade] gives us that."

Yet DCU finds itself in a different year, a different place, a different mindset, even if many of the faces are the same.

"I think we just had more urgency towards the end of last year and knowing that if we didn't win this game we'd be out of the playoffs," Birnbaum said. "So I think that's what's lacking from us: urgency and energy."

Perhaps with those additions, the Rooney effect will make a return.

Big picture

Playing at home is always an advantage. The familiar conditions give you the chance to dominate the opposition. Except when you are Delhi Capitals (or Daredevils). Out of the 69 IPL games they have played at Feroz Shah Kotla over the years, they have won 30, giving them a win percentage of just 44.1.

Capitals have done marginally better this time. Their home record in IPL 2019 stands at three wins and three losses from six games. The other things they have done well this time is qualifying for the playoffs - for the first time since 2012 - and now have a chance to throw their hat in the ring for a valuable top-two finish.

However, when they face Rajasthan Royals at home on Saturday, they will once again be without Kagiso Rabada, out for the remainder of the tournament after picking up a back injury. Moreover, Royals have a better overall record the Kotla, with four wins and as many losses from eight games.

A win will take Capitals to 18 points, and if Mumbai lose their last league game - against Kolkata Knight Riders - Capitals will likely finish second on the points table. But a loss may jeopardise their chances given their negative net run-rate (-0.096).

Royals, on the other hand, are hanging by the thinnest of threads. To make it to the playoffs, they not only need to beat Capitals but also hope that Sunrisers Hyderabad lose to Royal Challengers Bangalore, and for the winners of the Kings XI Punjab v Kolkata Knight Riders to lose their last match.

But Royals must be confident as they are coming into this game on the back of two successive wins while Capitals had a heavy defeat against Chennai Super Kings in their last game.

In the news

Rabada has been ruled out of the IPL. Rabada had complained of discomfort after Capitals' match against Royal Challengers on April 28, then missed Capitals' last match, against Super Kings on Wednesday, and has since gone back to South Africa.

For Royals, with Steven Smith having returned to Australia, Ajinkya Rahane will once again assume the captaincy role for Royals.

Previous meeting

When these two sides met earlier in the tournament, Rishabh Pant's scintillating 78 not out off 36 balls outshone Rahane's unbeaten 105 as Capitals chased down Royals' 191 with four wickets and as many balls in hand.

Likely XIs

Delhi Capitals: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Prithvi Shaw, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Colin Ingram, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Chris Morris, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Sherfane Rutherford, 9 J Suchith, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Trent Boult

Rajasthan Royals: 1 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 2 Liam Livingstone, 3 Sanju Samson (wk), 4 Rahul Tripathi, 5 Ashton Turner, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 Stuart Binny, 8 Shreyas Gopal, 9 Jaydev Unadkat, 10 Varun Aaron, 11 Oshane Thomas

Strategy punt

• Chris Morris has conceded 180 runs in the 18 overs - for an economy of 10.0 - he has bowled in the first 15 overs of an innings so far. In contrast, his returns at the death - where you would normally expect a bowler to leak runs - have been exceptional: ten wickets at an economy of 8.4. In Rabada's absence, it makes sense for Capitals to use Morris as much as possible at the death.

• With five wickets in three matches, Oshane Thomas has lived up to expectations. Among the Royals pacers to have bowled this year, Thomas has the best average (13.2), best economy (7.3) and best strike rate (10.8). Thomas has picked up wickets in all three phases too. Therefore, Royals should use him in short bursts.

Stats that matter

• With 18 wickets in 13 matches, Shreyas Gopal is currently the third leading wicket-taker this season. Shreyas has picked up 13 wickets with googlies, the most by a spinner in IPL 2019. And significantly, all his wickets have been of top-order batsmen (No. 1 to No. 5).

• Rahane needs 14 more to bring up 5,000 T20 runs.

• Shikhar Dhawan is four short of 100 sixes in the IPL.

Somerset have agreed a deal to bring in Pakistan batsman Babar Azam for the Vitality Blast later this summer, subject to receiving a No-Objection Certificate. Babar, currently ranked the No. 1 T20 batsman by the ICC, will join in July and be available for the entire group stage as well as a possible quarter-final.

This will be a first stint in county cricket for Babar, who is currently in the UK for Pakistan's tour, which will be followed by the World Cup. He will take over from fellow Pakistan international Azhar Ali as one of two overseas players for the Blast, alongside West Indies quick Jerome Taylor.

"To be able to sign a player of the calibre of Babar Azam is tremendously exciting, said Andy Hurry, Somerset's director of cricket. "He is a proven performer at the very highest level and that is highlighted by the fact that he is the top rated international T20 batsman in the world.

"Obviously, everyone wants to sign a world-class performer, but we feel that continuity of selection is equally important. For us it is about securing the services of someone as talented as Babar Azam for more than just a handful of fixtures."

Babar made his T20I debut at Old Trafford in 2016 and currently averages 53.12 with a strike rate of 127.78 in the format. He was in good form at this year's Pakistan Super League, finishing as the sixth-leading run-scorer in the competition.

His availability for the Vitality Blast Finals Day, if Somerset get that far, will be determined by his Pakistan commitments, although they do not have anything scheduled after the World Cup until a home series against Sri Lanka in October.

"I am looking forward to the new challenge that playing T20 cricket in England will bring," Babar said. "I have heard good things about Somerset from Azhar Ali and I want to play a part in the club winning matches. I know that Somerset get good support and I hope that I can give them something to cheer about this year."

Kolkata Knight Riders 185 for 3 (Gill 65, Lynn 46, Shami 1-15) beat Kings XI Punjab 183 for 6 (Curran 55, Pooran 48, Warrier 2-31) by seven wickets

The most pleasing thing about this game were the cameos - the half-century on either side, one score in the high 40s apiece, and - for good measure - an eye-catching cameo from Andre Russell. In a game brimming with high-class batting, Kings XI Punjab set Kolkata Knight Riders what looked a challenging target of 184. Nicholas Pooran's 27-ball 48 - half of it coming in sixes - saw Kings XI on top early on, before a sumptuously intelligent 24-ball 55 not out from Sam Curran helped his side power to 183. Sunil Narine and Sandeep Warrier had stifled the innings through the Powerplay, but Kings XI's success at building partnerships following the early dismissals of Chris Gayle and KL Rahul ensured they remained on track to post a competitive total.

It was then something of a pity the bowlers couldn't back that up and deliver the result Kings XI so desperately needed to keep realistic hopes of qualification alive. Chris Lynn has found himself in a run of form his side had desperately needed after losing their way through the group stages, with four half-centuries in the last seven innings. He fell four short of that mark today, but in 28 destructive balls, he had helped Knight Riders to 62 in the Powerplay. From thereon, Shubman Gill took over.

Ensuring Lynn's wicket did not result in a slump of the run rate, Gill worked the field expertly for the next six overs or so, with the occasional risk paying off. Handy contributions from Robin Uthappa and Russell helped, but it was Gill's unbeaten 65 that saw Knight Riders all the way through, and while the game ended two overs early, the outcome - seven-wicket Knight Riders win - had been clear for the best part of the final hour.

Shubman's teenage kicks

It's fair to say Shubnam came into this year's IPL with something of a reputation to defend, having already made his international debut a few weeks ago. The way the tournament panned out hadn't quite matched the hype though, with a pair of half-centuries interspersed with a string of underwhelming scores. Tonight, he allowed Chris Lynn to do the early damage while biding his time at the other end, and by the end of the 12th over, Gill had accumulated just 34 off 31.

It was only then that he saw fit to launch, with no less than R Ashwin the chosen target for the teenager's aggression. He charged Ashwin's first ball to loft it in the air over long-on. A second six went over backward square leg two balls later, and the half-century was brought up with a late cut that would have had the MCC members purring on the first morning of a Test match. Even as the wickets fell at the other end, Knight Riders' youngest team member had assumed the role of senior player, and eventually saw them through to the end.

Curran's cerebral knock

Twenty-year-old Sam Curran's fresh-faced demeanour and slight build aren't exactly redolent of a typical power hitter, but in conjuring up that absorbing unbeaten 24-ball 55, he managed the best strike rate across an innings for Kings XI all season. Each ball was like a chess move, and Curran was one step ahead most of the way. He used his feet to scoop over fine leg, took the pace of the bowler in his strike to whack him over the top, and found angles to manoeuvre the ball into gaps Ashwin might have thought were impossible to pierce.

The final over from Harry Gurney was such an astonishing display of mental dominance over the bowler it became impossible to tell whether Gurney was bowling badly or Curran playing the innings of the season. The last six balls yielded 22 as a discombobulated Gurney knew not which variation to try, and in the moment, it appeared to have powered Kings XI to a total that looked slightly above par.

Gayle gone early

Perhaps the most telling blow struck all evening was executed in the first 15 minutes. In a game that would see several players produce vital knocks, a half hour at the crease for Chris Gayle might have been enough to see Kings XI home. Instead, a pair of boundaries in the first over was his lot as Gayle struggles with Gurney's varied pace and Narine's guile, with the big man getting frustrated at his failure to find the middle of his bat more regularly. Sandeep Warrier, who had a couple of overs ago sent KL Rahul back to the pavilion, pitched one short of a length to Gayle.

It was perhaps shorter than intended, and Gayle would have backed himself to clear the ropes. But with what had happened in the first three overs, Gayle jabbed at the ball early, eager to get himself going. The fielder at deep-backward square had been positioned exactly for that scenario, and it was the first of a number of plans that came together for a Knight Riders' side that suddenly appear up and running in the tournament again.

It's been a familiar story for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2019. Start the season full of promise and fire, stumble from one defeat to the next, end it to avoid finishing at the bottom.

In the auctions before IPL 2019, the franchise spent most of its purse on Shimron Hetymyer and Shivam Dube - a combined INR 9.20 crore (USD 1,330,000 approx.). They've both played only four games each out of 13 so far, and their purchase for big sums followed by limited opportunities is symptomatic of what, from the outside, seems another season without clear direction.

It's not been an easy ship to steer for Gary Kirsten, one of the two designated coaches for the franchise, with Ashish Nehra. Kirsten had come on board as a batting consultant in IPL 2018, in which Royal Challengers finished sixth. The year before that, they finished at the bottom. Given the run of poor performances - they have won a combined 13 out of 41 games in three seasons - Kirsten acknowledged that fundamental changes might be needed.

"There are some structural changes that need to be made that have maybe been around for quite a long time," Kirsten said in Bengaluru on Friday. "This is my first year as the head coach, so I've got a better understanding of what those are. We'll certainly discuss with our owners and look into that for next year.

"It's been a disappointing season. Obviously we would have liked to have had better results. I've been very encouraged with the second half of the season, since we only got two points in the first half. But we've won four of our last seven games, and one of them was a rained-out game. So that's kind of back to the kind of consistency you need. We started to really get things going in the second half, but unfortunately, in IPL if you have a bad start you're always going to be struggling."

Kirsten pointed to two losses in particular within the first fortnight of the tournament, which affected Royal Challengers' whole season.

"Two big games that cost us that we should have won at the beginning of the season was [against] Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders here," Kirsten said. "We lost both those games having played really good cricket for 95% of the game. Literally in 12 balls the game changed… in six balls. Those kind of games, if you're not winning them, they start to affect you big time during the season, because we know that IPL is incredibly unpredictable and games that you should be winning, you need to win.

"If you are on the back foot early and you have lost most of your games in the first half, you get into trouble in the second half. We have tried to pull it back. I thought we did a reasonably good job in pulling it back in the second half, but it is always going to be tough winning seven out of seven."

Even as he foresaw operational changes in the franchise, Kirsten hoped the playing core would be exempt, though he admitted Royal Challengers were still searching for a group of players they could come back to, year after year.

"I've always been a fan - as I'm sure all the coaches are in this IPL - of continuity. You want to try and build your core of players and build a culture where you can keep coming back to the same players," Kirsten explained. "I think the most successful franchises in IPL have done that. We're searching for that in RCB. While there might be some structural change next year, I'm hopeful and confident we'll have some continuity in our players.

"Because we need to really start building a core of players that we believe in, and back them. I think the franchises that do a lot of chopping and changing every year run into problems. Because IPL is not about an individual performing every IPL, that's just not going to happen. But if you keep backing guys they are going to come good for you in one season."

The last league game for the team, against Sunrisers Hyderabad at home on Saturday, will be one that Royal Challengers will play without even the mathematical possibility of a playoff spot. The practical possibility had disappeared some time back, and Virat Kohli has reiterated before every game that the team is just looking to enjoy playing the game. However, that enjoyment is tough to channel amid losses.

"My view is you are only having fun when you are winning," Kirsten said with a smile. "I understand the point he (Kohli) is making but it is always tough when you are not winning games. The IPL is an incredibly intense competition. In my view, in domestic T20 cricket around the world, there is nothing even remotely like it and I think all the players feel the pressure, especially guys who are new to the IPL, they come here with their eyes wide open. They cannot believe how intense the games are. Senior players feel that pressure as well."

Nottinghamshire have offered England outcast Alex Hales an arm round the shoulder as he seeks to rebuild his shattered career, while at the same time making it clear that he needs to deliver on the field if he is to secure his future at the county.

Hales saw his desire to be back on the field after his expulsion from England's World Cup squad thwarted as rain washed out Nottinghamshire's Royal London One-Day Cup tie against Durham at Grantham Cricket Club, but Mick Newell, Nottinghamshire's director of cricket, made it clear that the batsman had been welcomed back into the fold following his 21-day suspension for a second recreational drug offence.

"Alex knows how we feel about the way he has behaved, that it fell way short of what we expect at the club, but he is very contrite about it and we are all going to work together to make sure it doesn't happen again," Newell said.

"His relationship with our dressing room is very good. Whenever he plays for us, he is always the same sort of character, the lads enjoy his company back in the changing rooms.

"They want to see him do well and whenever he comes back in I think his record for Notts shows that he is totally committed to playing whenever he is available."

Hales's latest misdemeanour, which follows his involvement with the brawl that ended with team-mate Ben Stokes in court on affray charges (from which was acquitted last year), brought a scathing condemnation from Eoin Morgan on the eve of England's ODI against Ireland, the team's captain speaking of a "breakdown in trust" between Hales and the other players.

But Newell rejected the notion that the batsman was a character who deserved to be ostracised. "I understand what the England players have done and I respect the decision they have made," Newell said.

"But I've known him for 12 years and as a character, I don't see him as the bad boy of cricket at all. He's just made poor decisions, mistakes. He realises now that he can't afford to make those mistakes again.

"What a price he has paid. He has been left out of the World Cup squad. That's as bad a penalty as I can think of for anybody in cricket. But we have tried to make him aware that we want to support him. Ultimately, though, they are his decisions and his lifestyle has to be the right one."

Nonetheless, while stopping short of issuing him with a final warning, the county has made it clear that Hales must also make a meaningful contribution on the field, in the job he is paid to do, if he is to secure a contract beyond his current deal, which expires at the end of this season.

Because he is on a white ball-only contract, that means making an immediate impact in what remains of the Royal London Cup, followed by a major contribution to Nottinghamshire's campaign in the Vitality Blast T20.

"He will have two, hopefully three 50-over matches if we get to the final, and then at least 14 T20 matches," Newell said. "If he has an impact on our season like he did in 2017, when we won both white-ball trophies, then that is the best he can possibly hope for.

"If that comes combined with him understanding that he needs the network of support we put in place around him, to ensure that he makes better decisions in the future, as he is well aware he must, if that all falls into place then there is no reason why he can't play for Notts for a number of years.

"We are hopeful he is going to have a really good summer and we will sit down and talk to him at some point in August-September time."

Newell admitted he was unhappy he was not allowed to be clear about the reason for Hales's absence from the county's early one-day fixtures, which he had to say was for "personal reasons" because of the ECB's confidentiality agreement with the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) over recreational drug offences.

"There is a process in place agreed by the ECB and the PCA that you have to adhere to and we were as honest as we felt that we could be, given that," he said. "But it created a vacuum of information where you couldn't tell people why Alex was not playing. I don't like being in a position where I have to say 'no comment' but you have to stick to the policy. It was not ideal."

The Cleveland Indians placed star pitcher Corey Kluber on the injured list with a broken right arm that will sideline him indefinitely.

Kluber, 33, sustained a non-displaced fracture of his ulna bone when he was hit by a 102 mph line drive off the bat of Miami's Brian Anderson on Wednesday night. He underwent further tests Thursday at the Cleveland Clinic, and the results confirmed the diagnosis.

The Indians said Kluber does not need surgery for now. He will be re-examined in three to four weeks.

The loss of Kluber is a major blow to the Indians, who trail Minnesota in the American League Central by three games and haven't been hitting -- batting an AL-low .215 with just 111 runs this season. Cleveland is missing two starters from one of baseball's best rotations as Mike Clevinger remains out with a strained back muscle.

Kluber, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, was not pitching up to his standards early this season, but the right-hander is still the club's ace and a leader.

The Indians are likely to go to a five-man rotation in May with Jefry Rodriguez getting starts. He has made two starts while filling in for Clevinger and is scheduled to start Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox.

Kluber would have started Monday, and manager Terry Francona will either juggle his rotation or reach down to Triple-A Columbus and bring up either Adam Plutko or Cody Anderson.

Cleveland recalled reliever Jon Edwards on Friday to take Kluber's spot on the roster.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ON A COLD, February night in Chicago, a cluster of reporters gathered around Kyrie Irving, backing him up against a whiteboard in the visitors locker room of the United Center. Minutes earlier, the Boston Celtics had stooped to a new low in their vexing season, suffering a dispirited loss to the lowly Chicago Bulls.

Irving, an Uncle Drew cap jammed low over his brow, was asked to gauge his level of concern regarding the team's long-term prognosis.

"It'll be fine," he answered in a monotone cadence, a vast departure from emotional responses he'd provided as recently as a week before.

"Why do you think that?" a reporter persisted.

"Cuz I'm here."

Boston's players say Irving began prepping them for the postseason weeks in advance, pulling them aside individually for quiet counsel and expressing the urgency required for playoff basketball. It is imperative, he told them, that every possession, every sequence, be treated with the utmost care.

His leadership approach has been notably more collaborative, less combative.

"The energy is great now," Terry Rozier says. "We're together. Not like before."

The Celtics swept the Indiana Pacers in the first round, then stunned the league's top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks with a Game 1 thrashing that was their most complete effort of the season. It seemed Kyrie had been proven prophetic.

Then Boston was trounced in Game 2. Irving missed 14 of his 18 shots, delivering an artless nine-point performance. He was unperturbed, adding blithely, "This is what I signed up for."

As the Celtics navigated a tumultuous regular season that threatened to derail their title aspirations, they often felt like the embodiment of NBA unhappiness. Myriad issues muddled Boston's chemistry: young players eager to prove themselves who were relegated to lesser roles, and the mental and physical travails of veteran Gordon Hayward. And there's the ever-changing psyche of the MVP talent Irving, whose journey of self-discovery resembled a dizzying amusement park ride that dipped and climbed with white-knuckle speed, the rest of the team in tow, with little choice but to strap in and hold tight.

Irving says his team was never as dolorous as it appeared, though, nor has its path to harmony been an instantaneous fix.

"Life isn't nearly as hard as we make it," he says.

IN EARLY MARCH, NBA commissioner Adam Silver could have chosen any number of topics as the featured speaker at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, but one question gnawed at him: Why aren't NBA players happier?

"To the outside world, they see the fame, the money, all of the trappings that go with it," Silver said. "[Our players] are the best in the world at what they do and people think, 'How is it even possible they could ever be complaining?' Some of these players come from difficult circumstances, and some of them are amazingly isolated."

The following week, Hall of Famer Charles Barkley blasted Silver's comments as "the stupidest thing I've ever heard any commissioner say. These guys are making $20 million, $30 million, $40 million a year. They work six, seven months a year. They stay in the best hotels in the world -- they ain't got no problems."

Au contraire, insists Rozier.

"More money, more problems."

Negativity seeps into locker rooms in many forms, social media chief among them these days.

"Kyrie was the first person who told me, 'No matter what [players] say, everyone looks,'" Rozier says. "'And when you look, you are going to see positive things and negative things from people who have never met you.' That's why Kyrie deleted all that stuff off his phone -- it was bothering him."

Boston's president of basketball operations, Danny Ainge, wishes he could find a way to convince the players to eliminate social media from their basketball lives.

"I worry they run straight to their cellphones after the game," Ainge says. "Every time I'm in the training room, I see them glued to their phone, checking to see what people are saying.

"I don't understand it. And if that's one potential cause of unhappiness, then it's not worth it."

Another cause is an age-old conflict -- lack of playing time. Rozier, who was a postseason star in 2018 while Irving recovered from knee surgery, saw his minutes and his shots reduced in a season when he was approaching free agency.

"I felt like I went from the passenger seat to the trunk," Rozier says, with a wry smile. "Everybody tells you, 'Don't think about the contract, don't think about the money.' I always tell myself, 'I'll get what I deserve one day. Maybe not this day, but one day.'"

Jaylen Brown was also forced to adjust to a less prominent role. Count him among those who has tuned out the critics. In the past month and a half, he has been one of the most consistent and effective players for the Celtics. It has been the result, he says, of a season-long learning curve culminated by "re-centering" himself.

"You come to realize you shouldn't compare yourself to others and their situations," Brown says. "I started focusing on me. I tried not to let my emotions control me. That was hard sometimes, because the media puts so much pressure on us. They blow things out of proportion and people run with it."

Irving, an independent thinker who has freely expressed his opinions -- and occasionally paid the price for his unfiltered candidness -- says he's finished trying to explain himself.

"In order to find happiness, you have to find the balance in all this," Irving says. "So, I'm not going to keep talking about what works for me, or what I'm struggling with, knowing I'm not proving anything to anybody because the work is being done by me.

"I don't need to show anybody what I'm doing as a leader or as a person or as a basketball player. I'm going to miss shots in some games, I'm going to make some shots in games. It's the ups and downs of a season. I'm not investing in, 'Oh, this is his team, he needs to do more, he needs to step up.' It's just stupid."

KYRIE IRVING HAS never had to worry about playing time. He submitted the most complete season of his career, averaging 23.8 points, a career-high 6.9 assists and solid defensive metrics that should have left him ecstatic.

Yet, he confided to ESPN that being a leader was more complicated than he ever imagined. Early in the season, he adopted a passive-aggressive stance with the younger teammates, strikingly similar to the LeBron James tactics that infuriated Irving in Cleveland.

In January, Brown called Irving on it, wondering aloud why only the young players were being singled out for uneven play.

"It wasn't really a pushback," Brown says. "In reality, I agreed with what Kyrie said. I just thought it was unfair to single out the young guys. We all needed to do better."

Irving's attempt to navigate the unrelenting scrutiny was, and is, a work in progress.

"There's been a lot of emphasis on the wrong things," Irving explained to ESPN. "People make it as if basketball is the most important thing in our lives. So, you [deal with] the money and expectations and all the things that come with being in a professional environment.

"I fought all that this season. It's not about having everything if you don't have the happiness of playing the game."

Al Horford suspects his perspective is different as he was born in the Dominican Republic, without the comforts afforded his American counterparts. He's so grateful for his NBA opportunity, the center with a player's option this summer claims he'd play basketball for free.

"Everyone wants everything," Horford notes. "Hey, I want to be first team All-NBA. But I was very fortunate that when I was [at Florida] under Billy Donovan, I quickly learned that if I play for the team, it's going to bring me more joy and more success than if I just concentrate on myself."

Brown tried to heed Horford's advice, but when he faltered early in the season, he began pressing, forcing his offense, further compounding his woes. He lost his starting job, a crushing blow for a third-year player with grand aspirations.

"Sometimes we put too much pressure on ourselves," Brown admits. "You expect things to go a certain way, and when they don't, that voice in the back of your head starts getting louder and louder."

Irving watched his young teammates chafe at their designated roles, yearning for more. He pushed them, but, he said, also sympathized with their frustrations.

"I think this whole business is flawed, by the way the draft is set up, by the way the coaches and the GMs are set up, the way people get fired and traded," Irving says.

"When you think about putting a leather basketball in a rim, and how many other complicated things happen because of that one simple thing, with our families and our lives, you can understand why people are struggling."

ROZIER IDOLIZED IRVING long before they became teammates, but he had trouble understanding why the future Hall of Famer, who seemingly had everything, was scuffling.

"I love Kyrie," Rozier says. "But there were times this year when I wanted to say to him, 'Listen, you don't have reason to stress. You're Kyrie Irving. I'm the one that has reasons to stress.'"

Money and stature had nothing to do with it. Irving hates to be defined merely in basketball terms. He's as passionate about his support of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which traces back to his late mother's roots, as he is his brilliant handle.

"I felt by being so invested in basketball, it did me a disservice because it made me pay attention to the wrong things," Irving said. "Like people's opinions, and things going with other people on that don't have anything to do with me.

"Everyone falls prey to it. The rankings, the top players, the trade rumors, all the fake basketball analysts, and coaches that know everything. I'm not going to let anyone else dictate my happiness."

Celtics players concede that earlier in the season Irving's mood swings often left them treading lightly in the locker room. Coach Brad Stevens and Ainge addressed it with their best player, and he promised to be more aware. "His positive outlook lately has made a huge difference," Rozier says.

Horford noticed a shift from all of his teammates. The angst over shots and minutes receded as the postseason approached. As Rozier notes: "The playoffs are like a reset button. It's all about the Celtics now -- not about getting paid, or whether it's a contract year, or whether you're at the end of the bench."

Granted, all of this renewed solidarity begs a question: Couldn't that united commitment have existed all along?

"In hindsight, we could have been a lot better," Brown admits. "We were trying to figure this out. Not just us in the locker room, but Brad and the front office, too.

"Maybe we did a little too much talking in the media, and then we read it, and it separated us in some sense. But there's no bad blood in our locker room. There never has been."

Irving cautioned it's a mistake to put too much stock in one win or one loss. For some, NBA happiness will always be day-to-day, depending on the box score stats and the bank account dollar signs and the team's place in the NBA standings and the court of public opinion.

"I've been playing basketball a lot longer than some of these people analyzing the game," Irving says. "I'm an actual genius when it comes to this game.

"If you ask me about basketball, I will talk all day. If you ask me about spacing at the 3:33 mark of the second quarter, I will gladly explain it. I'll tell you what plays worked, about adjustments we make. But when it comes to personal things, or comparing myself to my NBA brothers, like, 'Do you think you are better than this guy?' I'm out."