Briefs | College football: 2 UCLA quarterbacks suffer injuries

College football

Cowan, Olson are carted off the field with leg injuries: UCLA quarterbacks Pat Cowan and Ben Olson are hurt again, after struggling through injuries last season.

Each had to be carted off the field at spring practice, Cowan with a left-knee injury and Olson with a broken bone in his right foot. Neither of Thursday's injuries occurred because of contact.

Cowan, who is the son of former Washington Huskies quarterback Tim Cowan and edged Olson for the No. 1 job this spring, will be sidelined for an indefinite period with ligament and cartilage damage. Olson, a 25-year-old slowed by injuries throughout his college career, is expected to miss from six to eight weeks.

Junior-college transfer Kevin Craft, freshman Chris Forcier and converted wide receiver Osaar Rasshan will share the quarterback duties in the Bruins' camp-ending scrimmage tonight at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Rick Neuheisel, a former UW Huskies coach who became UCLA's coach in December, said, "I'm OK, under the circumstances. These are two tough setbacks for two great kids who are certainly trying, who have been bitten by some bad luck over the course of their careers. But they've always bounced back, and they will bounce back again."

Cowan, 22, hurt his knee scrambling.

"There is a chance, should the MRI prove that reconstruction [surgery] is necessary, we could be without Pat in '08," former UCLA quarterback Neuheisel said.

WNBA

Fever's Catchings is recovering from injury: Tamika Catchings of the Indiana Fever won't rush back from a major injury for the start of the season next month, instead focusing on playing for the U.S. team in the Olympics in Beijing in August.

Catchings missed the final 13 regular-season games last year after injuring her left foot. In the playoffs, she tore her right Achilles tendon.

Tennis

Federer advances: Top-ranked Roger Federer of Switzerland rallied to beat David Nalbandian of Argentina 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 and advance to the semifinals of the Monte Carlo Masters. Federer faces third-ranked Novak Djokovic of Serbia today.

Fed Cup: Vania King, ranked 115th in the world, and No. 145 Ahsha Rolle will represent the United States this weekend in a best-of-five Fed Cup semifinal against Russia in Moscow.

In singles matches today, King plays No. 7 Anna Chakvetadze and Rolle challenges No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Soccer

Manager says Beckham might play for England in World Cup: England manager Fabio Capello said he believes David Beckham could play again for his country at the 2010 World Cup.

Capello said the midfielder for Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy could be called up for the event in South Africa, if he maintains his fitness. Beckham would be 35 at that time.

Running

Baldini is injured: Olympic marathon champion Stefano Baldini of Italy has a stress fracture in his left leg and will miss about a month of training.

Cycling

Australians excel: Richard England, a former track-cycling specialist from Australia, raced to the biggest road victory of his career and countryman Trent Lowe of the Slipstream/Chipotle team moved into the overall lead in the Tour de Georgia.

Bissell rider England took the 133.4-mile Suwanee-to-Dahlonega stage in 5 hours, 15 minutes, 15 seconds. Slipstream/Chipotle rider Tyler Farrar of Wenatchee is in 97th place.

Phinney gets relief: After years of battling the effects of Parkinson's disease, ex-American standout Davis Phinney, 48, got some long-awaited relief.

Doctors activated a pacemaker that was embedded earlier this month into Phinney's brain, and after several hours of adjusting the settings of the device Phinney had no detectable tremor on the left side of his body and was walking with more ease than usual.

Doping

Graham to get notes: Anti-doping authorities must turn over notes of their interviews with three disgraced track stars — Calvin Harrison, Michelle Collins and Duane Ross — to lawyers for ex-coach Trevor Graham, who is accused of lying to investigators in a steroids probe.

Gymnastics

Georgia adds to titles: Georgia won its fourth NCAA women's title in a row.

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