• Manchester United forward decides to travel after allegations
• Fabio Capello still to decide on Rooney's frame of mind

Wayne Rooney has boarded a flight to Switzerland with the rest of the England squad this morning but, as revealed by the Guardian, he has still to prove to Fabio Capello that he is in the right frame of mind to start tomorrow's game in Basle.

The 24-year-old's private life has come under intense scrutiny since the early hours of Sunday morning when several newspapers made allegations about his conduct and there had been speculation that the Manchester United forward might remain at home.

• Rooney must prove to Capello he is focused on game
• Nike rally around Rooney after newspaper allegations
• Richard Williams: Capello has more concerns than sideshow

But he has travelled with his team-mates and is expected to take part in this afternoon's scheduled training session at St Jakob Park. The Football Association and the England manager, Fabio Capello, however, have yet to confirm that he will be in the starting XI.

The Switzerland head coach, Ottmar Hitzfeld, expects Rooney to play tomorrow. "I expect Rooney to be on the pitch," he said. "Such a thing like that will weigh on a player. Fabio Capello is not able to leave a player of his class out. I am no psychologist but Wayne Rooney is looking sharp and I am sure he will perform well.

"The only reason he didn't do well in the World Cup was that he was injured beforehand and didn't have time to make his fitness up in time for the tournament."

Pakistan batsman Yasir Hameed denies newspaper claims
that he said his teammates were corrupt

The first meeting between Pakistan and England since fixing allegations plunged cricket into crisis began under appropriately dark skies in Cardiff today, amid claims the International Cricket Council's fixing inquiry had been widened to include a fourth player.

After last week charging and suspending the three players at the centre of the alleged betting scam – Test captain Salman Butt, fast bowler Mohammad Asif, and highly regarded teenager Mohammad Amir – the ICC said it would not comment further on any ongoing investigation.

It is understood that the ICC has written to Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal in connection with a separate inquiry that does not relate to the current tour. However, there is no suggestion that he is the mystery fourth player claimed to be under investigation by reports tonight.

The three players are likely to appeal against the provisional suspension imposed last week under the ICC's code, which will see them unable to play for months while its investigation takes place.

But new claims by the News of the World that opening Test batsman Yasir Hameed had claimed fixing was rife among his teammates were immediately called into question by the player and Pakistan media outlets that said he had been asked leading questions and mistranslated.

Hameed, who did not play today and is not in the one day squad, said he had not given any interview – the exchange was filmed by an undercover reporter posing as a potential sponsor – and that he had not alleged any Pakistan player was guilty of match fixing.

"They were doing it in almost every match," Hameed was quoted as saying. "God knows what they were up to. Scotland Yard was after them for ages."

But Hameed said he was merely admitting that the players had discussed the allegations.

"I was approached by this guy about a deal for sticker sponsorship on my bat. It was a general discussion and I just repeated what had already been published in the News of the World," said Hameed.

"I was tricked into this interview, I never knew they were recording it, which is a serious offence and I am talking to the Pakistan team management about it."

The batsman was today summoned to see the Pakistan high commissioner and Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt and is believed to be considering the possibility of legal action.

The ICC could still investigate Hameed for his claim that he was approached by a middle man during the Champions Trophy in 2004, which under the commission's code should have been reported to anti-corruption investigators.

Police interviewed the three Pakistan players, alleged to have agreed to bowl no balls at specific moments of the fourth Test at Lord's, under caution on Friday before releasing them without condition or charge.

They are examining phone calls and text messages between the three and middle man Mazhar Majeed, as well as looking to link money found in their possession to £150,000 handed over by the News of the World. All three players maintain their innocence. Majeed was arrested and bailed a week ago.

• ECB to investigate two tweets from Hampshire all-rounder
• Offensive comments directed at national selector

A second England international cricketer is at the centre of a Twitter investigation following a foul-mouthed rant at the national selector, Geoff Miller.

Days after Kevin Pietersen was told he will face an England and Wales Cricket Board disciplinary hearing for an outburst on Twitter, Dimitri Mascarenhas is facing similar action after apparently describing Miller as a "knob" and a "prick".

The ECB confirmed after England had beaten Pakistan by five wickets in a Twenty20 international in Cardiff that it was looking into two tweets apparently sent by Mascarenhas, the Hampshire all-rounder who played for England's Twenty20 and 50-over teams last year.

One post sent from the Twitter account @DimiMascarenhas read: "Geoff miller is a complete knob. He had no clue what he is doing. Fing prick."

A second said: "Chairman of selectors came to Liverpool and didn't even come and say hi ... what a prick. Doesn't take much to say hello, does it." Neither post was visible on Mascarenhas's Twitter page tonight.

The 32-year-old is expected to be ordered to a disciplinary hearing by the ECB and could face a ban from the game. The governing body would most likely look more harshly on an outburst directed so personally at a selector than the post from Pietersen, who revealed on Twitter that he had been dropped from England's one-day squads to face Pakistan and described that as a "fuck‑up".

Last month the ECB banned the Under‑19 international Azeem Rafiq from all cricket for a month and fined him £500 for a tweet in which he described John Abrahams, its elite player development manager, as a "useless wanker".

Mascarenhas, who does not have a central contract, is a Twitter novice, having opened his account on 31 August. An ECB spokesman said: "We are aware of the tweet and we are investigating the matter." The issue is also being referred to Hampshire, who declined to comment.

• 'He played better than me - I'm very disappointed'
• Murray suffers four set defeat to Stanislas Wawrinka

Andy Murray was as confused as the rest of us in defeat and piercing his despondency was a struggle as we sought to discover why his usually pitch-perfect fitness deserted him when he needed it against Stanislas Wawrinka in the US Open.

Another grand slam championship has slipped by and, after four sets of anxious and fitful tennis, the Scot was at least honest enough to admit the prize might never be his. "I might never win a grand slam," he said, "but, if I give it 100% and train and work as hard as I can, that's all I can do."

Murray, who punishes himself at his training camp near Key Biscayne in Florida during the heat and wind of the American summer, had looked in superb shape in his first two matches but his legs were drained of bounce in the fading stages of this match, which Wawrinka deserved to win, hobbling himself midway, by 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-3 in four minutes short of four hours.

Wawrinka plays the American Sam Querrey in the last 16 tomorrow. That slot looked as if it belonged to Murray after he had scrambled his way through the first set. He should have taken the second, too, but there was no denying Wawrinka's more focused charge.

"I don't know why I felt the way I did," Murray said. "I haven't felt like that in a very, very long time, since I was maybe 20 or 21. I think the last two, three years it's not the reason why I've been losing matches. I can't explain it."

He dismissed the physical breakdown as "part and parcel" of a long match but it looked as if a deeper malaise had invaded his soul, as his mood went from subdued to dark as ink. He swore at himself, his racket and any inanimate object in his line of vision as the match ebbed from his unsteady grasp. "I'm very disappointed, of course," he said. "That's it. He played a very good match. He served well when he needed to."

These were the stock responses of a man still coming to terms with a minor nightmare, although he did not think he played badly. That would not be a view held by most of those close at hand, as he blew point after point with misdirected ground-strokes, tugged at tightening leg muscles, foot-faulted three times and was passed with worrying regularity as he strove desperately to get back in the match by attacking randomly rather than selectively, as he normally does.

Murray came to the net 50 times and won the point 30 times; those that he lost, though, were crucial, giving Wawrinka not just encouragement to keep banging them down the line but the momentum in a fluctuating contest.

Losing ceases to be a learning process when it arrives at a moment of high expectation, which Murray would be ready to accept. All that lessened its sting, he said, was that it was not in the final, scant consolation and then it might have been another Swiss.

He made dreadfully hard work of the first set, after going 4-1 down, and looked to be at his combative best when he rescued it in the tie-break. But the second should have been in his pocket after going 2-0 up, only for his own disciplined tennis to unravel and his opponent's crunch serve to start dragging the deficit back. When Wawrinka won that tie-break, the pendulum was heading for Switzerland.

Then Wawrinka suffered a wretched twist of fate, as his right quad gave up on him during a lunge at a wide ball on his backhand, a shot that most of the match was a killer winner for him. He took a medical time out, then his left quad seized up. Then Murray's leg seized up. Then Murray's whole strategy seized up. It went from not looking very good to anarchic in a few minutes in that third set and Murray never recovered.

It was Wawrinka who held his nerve, and Murray, the ice-cool pro, who struggled like a lost soul to find a winning formula or even the occasional kind bounce. None came.

In his efforts to explain what went wrong, Murray tried to keep it simple but it was not wholly convincing. "He played better than me," he said. "There's not a whole lot more to it. He had a chance to win the first set; didn't take it. I had a chance to win the second set; didn't take it. I just struggled from then on.

"I think you need to play your best tennis during the tournament, and that's it. That's the only way to win one."

He did not agree that defeat should rush him into deciding on a coach. "No, no. You've got to be patient. I was getting asked five, six days ago, 'You're playing great tennis; will you think about going without a coach?' It's based on one match. I'm not going to panic and hire someone to try and make things better."

As he has done before, he will go away and rest. He gave as good as he got. It was not good enough.

In the build-up to the England match on ITV, the host had all the relaxed charm of a hostage at gunpoint

Who, I should like to know, is spending £2.99 a week on the part work offering "three full episodes of the TV show Bonanza on DVD, and a companion guide"? And why would you need a companion guide? I seem to remember the show, which ran from 1959 to 1973, as a fairly routine soap opera, which could easily be followed without guidance, even if viewed through the wrong side of a balaclava while humming Rosemary Clooney's latest toe-tapper.

Bonanza was chiefly famous for its theme tune which went "dum da da dum da da dum dum Bonanza", and for the fact that, for unspecified reasons, they used to set fire to a map at the start of the show. It starred Lorne Green, an actor with a dark brown voice and a silvery grey toupée, as the patriarch of the Ponderosa Ranch, a widower living with his three sons; one obese, a handsome one always dressed in black, and another I have forgotten.

Each week one of them would get into some sort of scrape, but the family would rally round proving that a good, wholesome American family could defeat any kind of evil (code for communism, I suspect, although I missed that at the time). My parents enjoyed the show, ignoring my innuendoes about the boys, who were often to be found in the proximity of pretty girls with pinched waists and neat bosoms, but, like Liberace and Edward Heath, could "never find the right woman to settle down with".

I perhaps paid more attention to the Bonanza ads than I should have, as they were running in the build-up to the England match on ITV on Friday, and were more interesting than the uncomfortably stilted badinage between the host Adrian Chiles and his pundits. I found myself looking out for that little black and white spinning wheel in the top right-hand corner of the screen, signalling an imminent commercial break, and relief from the tedious pre‑match Capello-centric chitty chat.

It does not help that Chiles currently has all the relaxed charm of a hostage being forced at gunpoint to make a video asking his relatives to leave a large sum of money in a hollow tree, before they start receiving body parts by registered post.

I do not know what has happened to Chiles. Without being funny himself, at his best, on programmes such as The Apprentice: You're Fired!, he engendered an atmosphere of good humour through his ease with live television – not a skill to be undervalued – and a certain bluff geniality.

On Friday, though – maybe under the pressure of being chosen to satisfy the overwhelming national desire for a new breakfast TV show – all that seemed to have disappeared. He was laboured, and actually appeared nervous. While his panel bludgeoned home the familiar complaints about Fabio Capello's tactical intransigence, and inability to connect with some of his players, actually talking at one point about "losing the dressing room", the host ploughed his usual West Brom furrow: "We're rubbish, us, but we'll support us till we die, because that's the kind of wacky folk we are. Back with more after the break."

Danny Murphy was an addition to the regular punditry duo of Andy Townsend and Gareth Southgate, presumably in a bid to recreate the rapport Chiles used to have with Lee Dixon on Match of the Day 2, but on Friday's evidence that may be some distance away.

One further complaint; whoever told ITV that shooting the England manager at a 45 degree angle as if he was Citizen Kane would make his pre-match interview with Gabriel Clarke more interesting, was wrong. Oh, and I am fed up with The Verve, and the "England band" endlessly playing Tom Hark and The Great Escape is only marginally less annoying than the vuvuzela.

I am conscious of having been something of a crosspatch this week, so allow me to finish by applauding BBC4 for its North of England stuff. Last week the channel, which has lifted television archaeology to new heights, had some magnificent archive programmes about Blackpool; and tomorrow night it does a similar job for another distinctly northern phenomenon, rugby league.

There is an exceptional new documentary about Eddie Waring which, while largely sympathetic, explains why Eddie's efforts on behalf of the self‑styled Greatest Game were sometimes viewed sceptically on his home turf, a classic cup final from 1978, and a screening of Lindsay Anderson's epoch-making film, This Sporting Life. It is no Bonanza, but it remains the best film about sport you will ever see.

Wales's mystery man plans a comeback, Treviso get off to a flyer and Northampton appeal to voters

The mystery that is Gavin Henson is poised to make a return to rugby after taking an 18-month sabbatical to recover from a series of injuries and spend time with his two young children, but it is unlikely that his comeback will be with the Ospreys.

Henson said in an interview over the weekend that he was in talks with Ospreys, where he is under contract for the rest of the season having taken unpaid leave for the past 13 months, "trying to sort it all out". Henson's discussions have taken place at board level. The Ospreys coaching team have not been involved and a source at the region said no one was anticipating his return there and that everyone had moved on.

Ospreys would want a fee to release Henson, who has been linked with a move to the Aviva Premiership. Wales have missed him more than his region and the national coach, Warren Gatland, is monitoring developments.

"I think he will end up at a club and I see that a couple have been talking to him," said Gatland. "Ideally we would like to keep him, but perhaps he is looking for a move out of Wales for a fresh start, getting away from the goldfish bowl. If he is to put himself in the frame for the World Cup, he has got to return sooner rather than later: the new year may be too late."

Henson said he had no pending television commitments and that he had been training hard through necessity. "I did not miss rugby for the first six of seven months. I would choose to be a full-time father a hundred times over rugby or other work. I'd certainly put my career on hold to being up my kids but I'm not in a position not to work again: I need money like the next person."

Scarlets left with red faces

The opening day of the new season proved to be a happy one for the underdogs. Exeter made light of Gloucester in their first match in the Premiership, but their achievement paled in comparison to Treviso. The Italians marked their Magners League debut with a 34‑28 home win over the Scarlets having looked out of it at half-time when they were down by 13 points as well as a man, with Manoa Vosawai in the sin-bin. Connacht thrashed Newport Gwent Dragons 40-17 in Galway while last season's finalists, Ospreys and Leinster, slipped up on Friday, away at Ulster and Glasgow respectively.

Saints get political

Who says sport and politics do not mix? The Northampton chairman, Keith Barwell, used his column in yesterday's programme for the match against Leicester to warn the Liberal Democrat majority on Northampton borough council that it faces being thrown out in next year's elections for continuing to frustrate a plan to develop Franklin's Gardens. Barwell had threatened to take the Saints elsewhere but is now looking at the power of the ballot. "Most of the cost of our development will be paid for by Asda, who want to build a store on our land," wrote Barwell. "In the council leadership's view, this food store will seriously detract from the town centre but it is smaller than extensions proposed by Tesco and Sainsbury's. We could keep going on this merry-go-round for ever and a day. Fortunately, in eight months we have a borough council election. All major opposition parties on the council are clearly against the Liberal Democrat stance. A good many Lib Dem voters on the national front see the party as having sold them out. They are unpopular in the polls so can they hold on to power locally? I doubt it."

• Former Liverpool manager may work with MacDonald
• Owner Randy Lerner keen to appoint O'Neill's successor

Aston Villa hope to appoint Gérard Houllier as the successor to Martin O'Neill in the next 48 hours. The former Liverpool manager is spending the weekend deciding whether to return to the Premier League after a six-year absence.

Villa's American owner, Randy Lerner, is keen to make an appointment sooner rather than later. Houllier was interviewed last week – along with the caretaker manager, the reserve team coach Kevin MacDonald, and the former West Ham United manager Alan Curbishley.

The indications are that Houllier would not be against joining Villa in a traditional managerial role. However, MacDonald's coaching skills are highly rated by Lerner and the Villa players and he could be given a role with the first team.

Houllier gave little away on his future after attending the Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher's testimonial at Anfield yesterday. He is currently France's technical director but he has come under fire after a disappointing World Cup.

Questions have been raised over Houllier's health, given the heart problems from which he suffered at Liverpool. He has apparently assured Villa they would have no cause for concern.

Houllier, who turned 63 last week, left Anfield in 2004 and has been his country's technical director since leaving Lyon in 2007. He led Liverpool to a Uefa Cup, FA Cup and League Cup treble in 2001.

• Manager feels he has taken the side as far as he can
• Team have lost six of their last nine matches

John Toshack is set to resign as Wales manager and is considering announcing his departure within the next 48 hours. The 61-year-old could, though, continue temporarily in the role to give the Football Association of Wales time to identify and appoint a replacement.

That raises the prospect of Toshack remaining in charge for next month's 2012 European Championship qualifiers against Bulgaria and Switzerland. Wales, who do not play this week, are then without a competitive game until March.

Toshack was despondent after Friday's defeat in Montenegro, in their opening Group G fixture, and he feels that he has taken the side as far as he can. Toshack has no desire to oversee another qualification campaign where Wales are effectively going through the motions with little chance of progressing and is preparing to bring his six-year reign in his second spell as manager to an end.

FAW officials last night said Toshack had not yet quit, although they are aware of just how low the manager felt in the wake of the chastening 1-0 defeat by Montenegro. It was Wales's sixth defeat in their last nine matches and Toshack cut a dejected figure after a poor display that drew criticism from the 500 travelling supporters.

There had been suggestions that Toshack might wait to see how Wales performed in the Bulgaria and Switzerland matches before reaching a decision over his future but it now appears he will clarify his position early this week.

Toshack, whose contract expires in 2012, had felt upbeat about Wales's prospects when Scotland were defeated 3-0 in November but he has taken few positives from performances since. He had hoped what is a reasonable draw for the European Championship would give Wales a genuine chance of finishing second in their group, behind England, but the 1-0 defeat in Podgorica on Friday means they already face an uphill task, with Toshack describing the Bulgaria game in Cardiff next month as "must-win".

The list of potential candidates to succeed Toshack is likely to include Chris Coleman, who is out of work, Dean Saunders, the Wrexham manager who is also Toshack's assistant, and Brian Flynn, who has done an impressive job in his role as the Wales Under-21 coach. Gary Speed would have been near the top of the list but his recent appointment as Sheffield United manager has taken him out of the reckoning.

Toshack is expected to push Ryan Giggs's name forward as his replacement, although it seems unlikely that the 36-year-old will take the position when he remains a key part of Sir Alex Ferguson's plans at Manchester United. Giggs would, however, be the most popular choice among the public and give Welsh football a much needed boost at a time when supporters have become increasingly disillusioned with the national team's results and their failure to mount a serious challenge to reach a major finals for the first time since the 1958 World Cup.

The job of managing Wales is certainly a challenging one, as Toshack discovered from the moment he replaced Mark Hughes. Although Wales have a sprinkling of talented individuals, there is a small pool of players to pick from and injuries and premature international retirements have made things more difficult still. The Wales manager had hoped a crop of promising youngsters would flourish but, while Chris Gunter and Gareth Bale have caught the eye, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Collison have picked up serious injuries and many others have stood still or regressed.

Toshack knows, however, he must take responsibility for the results, which have generally been disappointing and prompted calls from supporters as well as former players for a change of manager.

• Win against Liechtenstein vital to boost Euro 2012 campaign
• Weir says Craig Levein's side has plenty of attacking options

David Weir is hoping for a leisurely evening on Tuesday when Scotland will play with a greater sense of adventure against Liechtenstein at Hampden. And with good reason: it was not so long ago that Scotland's visitors were mauled 7-1 by Malta. Spain adopted a more humanitarian approach on Friday by winning only 4-0 in Vaduz.

"I don't know if they will come to Glasgow with damage limitation in mind," said Weir, the veteran central defender. "I imagine they will try to keep it tight for as long as they can, and the longer it stays 0-0 the better they will feel. We have to be patient and we also have to open them up. It will be difficult but we have done it in the past. We've played against teams like that and we have managed to break them down. We just have to be patient and we need the fans to be patient with us as well.

"I think we need all our options. They will sit in and make things difficult for us. Obviously, it's a game we have to win and we have to do whatever it takes to do that."

Craig Levein, Scotland's manager, is still mulling over whether to deploy James McFadden or Kris Boyd or both on Tuesday. The attacking duo sat out Friday's scoreless draw in Lithuania but the 40-year-old Weir again performed with distinction and so will retain his place.

Weir is adamant that, despite Friday's punchless showing, there are scoring threats within Levein's squad. "There's no doubt there is. Obviously, on Friday we set up a wee bit tighter and a wee bit more solid. I'm sure as the need arises we will loosen up and there are definitely goalscorers in our squad.Look at the bench: Boyd, McFadden, Garry O'Connor. There are lots of goals there and lots of options and I'm sure they will come into the reckoning."

The problem for Scotland is that irreparable damage may have been done to qualification hopes for Euro 2012 by the loss of two points in Kaunas. Weir conceded that Spain and the Czech Republic, who also feature in Group I, are likely to gain maximum points against Lithuania.

"We have to hope Lithuania can take points against our rivals. But I would be surprised, to be honest, especially against the Spanish who I would think will have too much for them. But who knows? It's a funny game." Steven Fletcher's failure to recover from a bruised ankle means the Wolves striker has returned to his club and will not feature on Tuesday.

Levein has been boosted by the return to fitness of the left-backs Lee Wallace and Kevin McNaughton who trained today. Peter Houston, Levein's assistant, was today cautious not to underestimate Liechtenstein. "Last year, England had to wait until late on to get a goal against them," he said. The three points are the most important thing. Yes, it would be nice to score a few goals, but I think it would be disrespectful for me to talk about how many we're going to score."

Republic of Ireland defender Darren O'Dea has returned to his club after being ruled out of Tuesday night's Euro 2012 qualifier against Andorra through injury.

It is understood John Toshack will tender his resignation as Wales manager.

Scotland manager Craig Levein is sweating over the fitness of Steven Whittaker ahead of Tuesday's European Championship qualifier against Liechtenstein.

Andy Murray was at something of a loss to explain his third-round defeat to Stanislas Wawrinka as his bid for a first grand slam title came to a surprisingly early end at Flushing Meadows.

Audley Harrison's camp claim his Battle of Britain clash with David Haye will be signed this week.

Northampton captain Dylan Hartley described the Saints' 27-19 victory over defending Aviva Premiership champions Leicester as the "perfect start" to the season.

The Football Association have confirmed that Wayne Rooney will travel to Switzerland on Monday ahead of England's Euro 2012 qualifier in Basle.

Keith Fahey insists the Republic of Ireland need to look after themselves and not worry about their Euro 2012 rivals as they attempt to make their way to the finals.

Salford boss Shaun McRae felt it was "mission accomplished" after his team secured a 16-12 victory over Wakefield in their final Engage Super League game of the season.