Olympic gymnast BETH TWEDDLE has had a "successful operation on her neck after becoming the latest celebrity to be injured on Channel 4’s ski-jumping reality show The Jump." The Bronze Medal winner at the 2012 Olympics had surgery "to fuse fractured vertebrae after being airlifted to hospital following a crash during training on Saturday afternoon." Tweddle is one of seven contestants "to have been injured just two episodes in to the third series of the show." Fellow Olympian, swimmer REBECCA ADLINGTON, has "already retired from the competition after dislocating her shoulder following a crash during filming for the first episode" (London GUARDIAN, 2/8). ... A "friendly Manchester rivalry is set for the streets of Cheshire" after Man City player RAHEEM STERLING netted a £3.5M ($5M) mansion close to former ManU Manager ALEX FERGUSON's. Sterling's new place "is said to boast a 30ft swimming pool as well as a cinema room and garage capable of housing three sports cars." Sterling "is set to rub shoulders with Ferguson in Wilmslow." Ferguson "has lived in his Tudor-style house for the last 20 years" (London DAILY MAIL, 2/8). ... Spain's Superior Sports Council (CSD) has stripped runner MARTA DOMÍNGUEZ of her status as a Spanish athlete after the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned her for three years for blood doping and removed her '09 world steeplechase title. CSD President MIGUEL CARDENAL said in a statement that the decision "to exclude" Domínguez from "high-level sports and athletics" was taken because of doping (AP, 2/8).
HAYNE QUASHES RUMORS: Former National Rugby League player JARRYD HAYNE "has quashed rumours linking him to the Sydney Roosters, adamant he wants to return to the Parramatta Eels" if he was to quit the NFL. The rumor mill "went into overdrive last month" when Hayne was photographed with Roosters coach TRENT ROBINSON, but the 27-year-old said that he would "stay true to his word and give Parramatta first crack at re-signing him." Hayne: "Like I always said, if I ever came back I'd go to Parra if they wanted me" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 2/8).
