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Renato Palma Veiga is a Portuguese professional footballer who primarily plays centre-back but can also play left-back or defensive midfielder.…
TO say Aaron Hickey has been kicking his heels in his bid to return from injury is an understatement.
The hugely promising 22-year-old hasn’t played since going off late on in the 2-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge back in October 2023 with what proved to be a severe hamstring injury.
He was in the midst of a breakout season at that point and a certainty to play a key role for Scotland at the Euros.
But a series of setbacks and TWO operations left him sidelined ever since, with the player painstakingly building his way back up to a sufficient level of fitness.
And the good news is that chiefs at Brentford have decided to picth him back into a B team clash THIS AFTERNOON.
Brentford B are taking on Birmingham City in the U21 development league at Whitesheaf Park.
And that could be just the ticket as national team boss Clarke bids to get the best team he can on the pitch for two Nations League relegation playoff deciders against Greece in March – then the World Cup campaign to follow.
Hickey, who recently penned a new deal to take him through to 2028, said last month: “It’s been a very long time – it’s been difficult and disappointing for me.
“But these things happen and, now, I just have to make sure I’m mentally strong and ready to come back into the team again.
“It’s been hard. I had my first surgery, which didn’t go well, so that was a major disappointment for me.
“I had another surgery, worked my way back, I was back running, and then I felt something again.
“I feel like I’ve been very unlucky, to be honest. But now I’m feeling good and I’m fully focused on being back and training with the team.
“I go and support the boys nearly every week and it’s great that they’re doing well – we’ve got a great blend of players here and it’s all starting to come together.”
“It’s been a very long time – it’s been difficult and disappointing for me. But these things happen and, now, I just have to make sure I’m mentally strong and ready to come back into the team again”
On his new contract at Brentford he said: “The club has been very loyal to me, despite this injury. I’m very thankful for that.
“I now want to get back on the pitch and give something back.
“I’ll be back – and I’ll be back faster, strong and fitter, ready to do whatever I can for the club.
“I’m focused now on coming back and playing with the team.”
Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
MACER Gifford watched as bloodied ISIS terrorists limped out of the bombed-out city of Raqqa and into the Syrian desert, broken and defeated.
After three years of brutal street fighting against unhinged jihadists across Syria and seeing his friends killed in ambushes and car bombs, the Brit soldier had finally seen the Islamic State fall to its knees.
Macer, who had quit his job as a banker in London in 2014 and left his girlfriend to travel 3,000 miles to Syria to join the fight, had finally achieved his goal – the defeat of ISIS – by 2017.
Or so he had thought.
In the stifling deserts of Syria and Iraq, the caliphate has been festering in the background – waiting for the right moment to come back stronger and deadlier than before.
Macer fears ISIS will take advantage of the security vacuum sparked by rebels toppling Bashar Assad’s brutal dictatorship after 53 years.
He warns that the civil war could continue for years – allowing ISIS to rise up and break free the 100,000 battle-hardened jihadists and their families languishing in Syrian camps amid the chaos.
The banker-turned-fighter fears the terrorists could launch a new wave of deadly terror attacks in Britain and across the world in a matter of months if ISIS is allowed to gain force and escape the camps.
Macer, not his real name, told The Sun: “If the Syria civil war continues and the Islamic State rises up, we’ll see a huge burst in terror attacks around the world.
“ISIS has made it clear that they will continue to fight and they will continue to kill until their long-term aims are realised.
“And since they are a death cult, their aim is the complete destruction of all diversity in the world, all culture and all learning.”
The Brit added: “The stakes here are enormous – there are 100,000 ISIS prisoners including their families still under captivity in Syria.
“And if they’re released, many of them – tens of thousands – could come to Britain so it’s a horrifying future if we don’t get this right.”
Among the 100,000 Islamic State prisoners in Syria are Brits including infamous ISIS bride Shamima Begum who fled the UK in 2015.
Officials have repeatedly warned that the grim detention centres – like the infamous al-Roj and al-Hol camps – are a breeding ground for radicalisation.
And Macer said jihadists could be freed from the detention centres, which are controlled by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in a series of different ways and wreak havoc on the world.
The US State Department has already warned that the jihadists will use the void created by the fall of Assad’s regime in just two weeks to reconstitute again.
Not helping matters is US President Donald Trump‘s unexpected cuts to foreign aid – and that meant security and administration around the two camps was withdrawn.
There were reports of camp guards not showing up to work – and they only did when the US State Department quickly brought back their funding at the last minute.
It’s raised questions about the security of the camps and fears that an ISIS army is waiting to pounce and launch a prison escape.
Macer said: “The Islamic State could release the 100,000 terrorists – including people like Shamima Begum.
“That could happen if there is increased turmoil and violence in the country and the SDF is no longer able to protect the camps, which are a huge burden for them.
“The Islamic State could free them and give them arms, and that would be terrible.”
But Macer also pointed to how the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels, who toppled Assad‘s regime in a lightning assault in December, could make matters worse.
He said the West has no idea what is running through the mind of Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the militant leader of HTS, which was formed out of a former al-Qaeda affiliate.
Macer warned: “If al-Jolani takes control of the camps, if this new government in Damascus performs in the future as they have done in the past, then there’s a real risk that they’ll let ISIS prisoners go.
“And they’ll talk about there being no evidence, they can’t try them and they’ve already done their time – they’ll come up with excuses for the West.”
The ideology of hate and evil still exists in Syria and Iraq. It just fled to the desert, weaker but more aggressive and just as ambitious as it ever was.
Macer Gifford
He claimed that the HTS and Free Syrian Army (FSA), a group which helped the rebels topple Assad, had previously helped release ISIS jihadists from camps and “allowed them to go missing”.
The former public schoolboy said: “If that happens to these camps, that’s 100,000 battle-hardened ISIS fighters potentially being released by either the new government or some violent faction in the future.”
Macer added: “So making sure that we support local people that are holding these people, make sure they have the resources to hold them, and then eventually put them on trial, spares us this huge risk that they could be released and come to Europe.”
The Brit is well versed on the horrors that ISIS can unleash after spending three years fighting them in brutal battles across Syria.
It all culminated with six months of sheer hell fighting in the streets of Raqqa in 2017, with hundreds of Macer’s comrades dying on a weekly basis.
He would watch with horror as ISIS terrorists would use babies as human shields, massacre civilians waving white flags in surrender and blow up his Kurdish comrades in car bombings.
He still remembers the “smell of death” hovering over the city and constant sound of bullets cracking through the air followed by the piercing cries of grief.
It was a far cry from where Macer had grown up in rural Cambridgeshire with his parents and two brothers or central London where he later worked as a currency trader.
But Macer knew he needed to fight after watching Jihadi John behead his kneeling victims and ISIS jihadists burning hostages alive in cages.
After six months of brutal street-to-street fighting in Raqqa, the city was finally liberated in October 2017 and Macer watched the terrorists limp out of the city, broken and destroyed.
For Macer, watching ISIS surrender in Raqqa was the end of the war for him.
But he warned that the fight is not over.
Macer said: “The Islamic State was militarily defeated in Raqqa and Mosul by the Kurdish-dominated SDF and by the Americans and British.
“But they didn’t destroy the ideology.
“The ideology of hate and evil still exists in Syria and Iraq. It just fled to the desert, weaker but more aggressive and just as ambitious as it ever was.
“They are waiting for the crisis to get worse, because where there is a crisis, you will find the isms that we despise and that cause so much misery in this world.”
And if the West doesn’t act now in supporting the locals and SDF in securing the ISIS camps – it could come back to haunt us, Macer warned.
By Tom Tugendhat MP, former Minister of State for Security
IN 2015, Shamima Begum left her friends, her family and her future in East London and boarded a plane to Turkey.
Her final destination was Syria, and her intention to join ISIS, a jihadi death cult.
Over the next few years, ISIS raped and murdered their way across the Middle East.
As their barbaric wave of extremism and beheadings spread, Shamima chose to remain a part of it. She chose to stay.
Begum may have started a child. But she became a criminal. And she chose to remain with ISIS until they had been driven back, and lost all of their Middle Eastern territories in 2019.
When a reporter finally found her in a Syrian refugee camp, she told him that she ‘didn’t regret coming here’.
She described how the first severed head she had seen didn’t faze her at all, as it belonged to an ‘enemy of Islam’, before telling the reporter that she wanted to return to the UK.
Thankfully, that never happened. Then Home Secretary Sajid Javid made good on the decision she had made in 2015, and every year of the fighting since, by stripping her of her British citizenship and blocking her return.
He said at the time that he would not hesitate to remove someone’s nationality if it was the only option left to him to protect those living in the UK.
It was the right call then. It would be the right call now.
READ MORE HERE
A NINETIES pop duo who reached Number 1 as their infamous music video caused a global storm are unrecognisable 26 years on.
The band burst onto the international scene kissing and cuddling onstage while wearing scanty school uniforms – posing as a lesbian couple.
Singers Julia Volkova and Lena Katina, both 40, were in the notorious Russian fake lesbian t.A.T.u. pop duo.
The pair emerged as a phenomenon in 1999, the year mad Russian dictator Vladimir Putin first came to power.
And 26 years after the pair released their first track, Julia and Lena look unrecognisable compared to when they were at the height of their fame.
More than two decades ago, Julia and Lena defied their critics and topped the charts in many Western countries as well as Russia.
As they took Britain by storm, fuming TV presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan launched a campaign to ban the duo’s Number One hit All The Things She Said music video, showing them kissing in the rain.
ITV refused to play the clip on Ant and Dec‘s morning music show CD UK, insisting: “It is not really suitable for children.”
The infamous music video has accumulated over a whopping 453 million views on YouTube.
Iconic Julia, who has bravely beaten thyroid cancer twice, is said to have spent at least £22,500 on facial plastic surgery, according to surgeon Denis Agapov.
The mum-of-two has previously revealed to fans to have had a breast enlargement and botox.
She said: “Initially, I was just interested in how it was. It’s fashionable. Everyone does it, and I want to do it too.”
But she slammed critics of her new appearance, insisting that she still has self-love despite the surgery.
Julia added: “It’s not like I don’t accept myself.”
Meanwhile her co-star Lena also has two children, one son, aged nine, from her first husband, Slovenian rock-singer Sasho Kuzmanovich, and another, aged one, from her marriage to millionaire Dmitry Spiridonov.
But their lesbian act would probably land them in prison in modern Russia due to repressive mad Vlad Putin laws, despite being invited by the Kremlin leader to perform at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Putin’s puppets look to erase any trace of t.A.T.u. band amid a hardline crackdown on so-called LGBT propaganda.
Pro-Putin MP Tatiana Butskaya has demanded a full ban on t.A.T.u content, while access to a social media community surrounding the band has been restricted.
“Never in my life in our childhood did it occur to me that a girl could be with a girl, until t.A.T.u popped up,” said Butskaya who complained the duo’s creativity “promoted” same-sex relationships.
The Russian MP has also horrifically compared homosexuality with liver disease and tooth decay.
On the band’s Instagram, a video of Julia, who is now a solo singer, shows her performing at her 40th birthday this month singing the main t.A.T.u. hits to an adoring crowd.
Fans are desperate to see Julia and Lena perform together again following their 2023 reunion performance at the Winline Match Tour in Saint Petersburg.
One Instagram commenter said: “I miss them, I [would] love it if they do another album and a big world tour.”
Another said: “How nice to see them, they’re the best!”
And: “I loved them!”
DARTS fans are losing their minds at a cryptic post on social media that seems to suggest that Luke Littler, 18, could be facing Phil Taylor, 64, in a match of darts.
Target Darts, the sponsor of both Littler and Taylor, posted a video on X seemingly announcing that the master and the apprentice will be facing off.
The video teased that something big was “coming soon”, sharing that it would be “Two champions” going “head to head for the first time ever”.
There has been no explicit confirmation that it will be a darts match and not some kind of promotional campaign yet.
But fans are holding out hope that they will see the greatest player of all time take on the youngster who threatens to steal that title off him one day.
On social media, one said: “This is going to be insane”.
While another added: “No way! Two champions, this is the ultimate match. So excited for this!”
A third commented: “Love to see this”.
And a fourth posted: “This is going to be a great game”.
Taylor previously said he would only take on Littler in an exhibition match under two very specific conditions.
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The 14-time world champion wants to play just one leg of 301 AND he wants to take to the board first.
Speaking to TalkSPORT, he said: “No [I don’t want to play him]. Not yet, I don’t want to play him to be quite honest with you!
“I’d play him in an exhibition, yeah. One leg of 301, I go first!”
Meanwhile Littler had suggested that a match was somewhat inevitable, telling Sportbible it would be “incredible” to play with Taylor.
The teen sensation said: “I’m sure that will happen soon. Sooner rather than later.
“To share the stage with him will be incredible. I’m sure we’ll make it happen.
“If Taylor does start practicing, then it will be tough, but if he just sits at home and then comes to an exhibition then I fancy my chances.”
Littler has already been eyeing Taylor’s records, with The Nuke tipped to be one of the greatest to ever do it if he maintains his level throughout a lengthy career.
Speaking after his first ever World Championship win in January, Littler said: “I’ve said previously, if I can win every major title in my career then I’ll be happy.
“I’d like to add on the world titles, and deep down, if I want to break the record of Phil Taylor, I’ve got the ability to. If I want it, I’m sure I can do it.”
Littler has already set countless records with the Warrington kid now holding the title of youngest ever world champion alongside records like the highest three-dart average in a World Championship set.
But he has a long way to go to topple Taylor off his perch.
Taylor has won 13 more World Championships, 16 more World Matchplay titles, 11 more World Grand Prix titles, five more UK Opens and five more Premier Leagues – to name a few.
However Littler is already catching up with his counterpart in terms of cash.
Despite Taylor playing darts for over 30 years, his reported net worth of around £5.5m will likely be eclipsed by Littler.
The teen has already raked in over £1.5m after just over a year on the scene.
A WOMAN who died in a horror crash – reportedly as she got off a bus in north London, has been named by police.
Chithra Vanmeeganathan, 46, from Wembley, died after the collision involving a car, a bus and pedestrians on Monday (February 24).
She is thought to have been struck by a car.
Emergency crews rushed to Bessborough Road at 9.19pm but the victim died at the scene.
Her next of kin has been informed and is receiving support from officers.
Detective Sergeant Paul Jackson, from the Roads and Transport Policing Command, said: “Our thoughts remain with Chithra’s family at this difficult time.
“The investigation into this tragic incident is ongoing, and we are continuing to appeal for anyone with footage of the incident, including from a doorbell camera or dashcam, or anyone who witnessed the collision to come forward.”
Two other pedestrians, a 12-year-old boy and a woman in her 30s, were taken to hospital for treatment – their conditions are not life changing.
The driver of the car stopped at scene and he was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. They have since been released on bail.
Officers are appealing for witnesses or anyone with footage of this incident, including drivers with dashcam footage, to contact police on 101 or ‘X’ @MetCC quoting CAD 7193/24Feb.
You can also provide information anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
DUBLIN is set for “hazy spells of sunshine” as temperatures could reach 12C this weekend.
The capital will experience a taste of settled weather, with just occasional light rain or drizzle, mainly in parts of the west and north.
And the weather bosses said today will be largely dry with sunny spells, but overnight, it is likely to feel a bit colder, with temperatures falling between -1C and 4C.
Met Eireann said: “It will be largely dry today with sunny spells, but clouds will increase from the west during the afternoon, turning the sunshine hazy.
“Highs of 8 to 10 degrees with light to moderate southerly winds.
“[Tonight] cold and dry tonight with a mix of cloud and clear spells.
“Some frost may develop early in the night as temperatures fall to between -1C and +3C in a light to moderate southerly breeze.”
Saturday will see a cold start with frost clearing under hazy sunny spells.
Met Eireann said that tomorrow night will see outbreaks of light and drizzle but it will become patchier.
They added: “A few brighter spells will develop later in the afternoon but there’ll be a lot of cloud overall.
“Highs of 7 to 11 degrees in light westerly or variable winds.
“Saturday night [is set to be] dry with some clear spells, patches of mist and fog will develop in light variable winds.
“Some frost and icy patches will also form with lowest temperatures of -1C to +4C.”
Mist and fog will gradually clear Sunday morning, leaving a generally dry day with some sunny spells and just the chance of isolated showers.
Highs of 9C to 11C are expected with light to moderate southwest winds, fresh at times near the Atlantic coasts.
And Sunday night will be cloudy with some patchy light rain or drizzle developing in the west and north.
Temperatures are set to fall between 1C to 5C in the south and not fall below 5C to 8C elsewhere in light to moderate southwest winds.
Monday will be rather cloudy with patchy light rain or drizzle in the north and west.
The forecaster added: “Drier with some brighter spells in the south.
“Highest temperatures of 10C to 12C with light to moderate southwest winds.
“Continuing cloudy with patchy light rain or drizzle in the west and north [on Monday night].
“Dry with clear spells over the southern half of the country.
“Lowest temperatures of 3C to 8C, coolest in the south under clear spells, in light to moderate southwest winds.”
