Scottish Premiership side Rangers suspended JOEY BARTON for three weeks, six days "after he was sent home from training following a heated argument with a teammate." The 34-year-old, who admitted he said some "inappropriate things" to fellow midfielder ANDY HALLIDAY, returned to Ibrox for a meeting on Monday. A Rangers statement said that the club and Manager MARK WARBURTON felt all parties now needed "time and space" (BBC, 9/19). ... The extent of MICHAEL SCHUMACHER's injuries "have been revealed, as his family sue a magazine over its claims he could walk again." The Schumacher family’s lawyer FELIX DAMM presented documents to a German court, and "explained the former Formula 1 champion’s injuries he suffered in a skiing accident." Schumacher’s family is "taking German magazine Bunte to court over a cover story that claimed he could walk again." The family "strongly denied the claims," and Damm told the court, "He cannot walk" (Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH, 9/19). ... Former England int'l PAUL GASCOIGNE has "pleaded guilty to racially aggravated abuse over a joke at a show." Gascoigne "humiliated" a black security guard assigned to protect him during An Evening With Gazza in Wolverhampton, Dudley Magistrates' Court heard. The ex-player was fined £1,000 ($1,303) after he admitted using "threatening or abusive words or behaviour" (BBC, 9/19). ... RON MASSEY, one of rugby's "master tacticians and a confidante to rugby league's best coaches, has died after a battle with illness." He was 86. JACK GIBSON's "right-hand man" during the coach's winning era at Eastern Suburbs ('74-75) and Parramatta ('81-83), Massey later "struck up an association with six-time premiership winner and Broncos coach WAYNE BENNETT." Massey was "considered one of the shrewdest minds in the business and sat in the coaching box with Bennett" as the team snapped its 31-year premiership drought in '10. Massey was known to "still keep up to date with the state of the modern game and has long been a sounding board for NSW and Cronulla skipper PAUL GALLEN" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 9/19). ... Cycling Australia High Performance Chief KEVIN TABOTTA has "resigned after two decades coaching his country's best cyclists in the wake of the team's disappointing showing at the Rio Olympics." CA said that Tabotta, who has produced more than 50 world champions across all cycling disciplines, will move on to a new role in "elite sport" (REUTERS, 9/19).
