GOLF

The back-and-forth between Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy continued Wednesday, with the rhetoric tuned down considerably from some past verbal jousting involving PGA Tour players and those who left for Saudi-funded LIV Golf.

Mickelson complimented McIlroy for his win last week, those remarks coming a day after The Guardian published an interview in which McIlroy – now the world’s No. 1 player again – said the game isn’t benefiting from all the acrimony between the sides.

“I see LIV Golf trending upwards, I see the PGA Tour trending downwards and I love the side that I’m on,” Mickelson said two weeks ago in Saudi Arabia, the seventh of the eight stops on this season’s inaugural LIV schedule.

But Wednesday, in advance of the LIV finale at Trump National Doral, Mickelson’s tone was a bit softer: “Maybe I shouldn’t have said stuff like that, I don’t know,” he said.

“If I’m just looking at LIV Golf and where we are today to where we were six, seven months ago and people are saying this is dead in the water, and we’re past that,” Mickelson continued. “Here we are today, a force in the game that’s not going away.”

Part of Mickelson’s word choice there wasn’t accidental. McIlroy made the “dead in the water” comment in February, around the time that Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau said they would remain with the PGA Tour. They both left for LIV anyway, lured by signing bonuses reportedly worth in excess of $100 million. Johnson has earned about $31 million more in LIV prize money heading into this weekend’s finale.

McIlroy returned to No. 1 in the world this past weekend by winning the CJ Cup in South Carolina. Mickelson called it “a great win” and “an impressive victory.”

“I think a lot of Rory,” Mickelson said. “I really have the utmost respect for him, and I look at what he’s done in the game and how he’s played this year and his win last week and No. 1 in the world now, and I have a ton of respect for him.”

SOCCER

RONALDO RETURNING: Cristiano Ronaldo is back in contention for Manchester United after talks with manager Erik ten Hag.

The Portugal striker could play against FC Sheriff in the Europa League on Thursday after being cut from the 1-1 draw with Chelsea last weekend and being made to train away from the first-team squad.

Ronaldo was punished for refusing to come on as a substitute in last week’s 2-0 win over Tottenham, which raised fresh doubts about his future at United.

But Ten Hag said Wednesday that the issue has now been resolved after talking to the forward.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Barcelona was eliminated in the group stage for the second consecutive season, with the result of its home game against Bayern Munich proving meaningless after Inter Milan defeated Viktoria Plzen in the earlier game.

Barcelona needed Inter to drop points, so it began its match at Camp Nou already out of contention as Bayern and Inter secured the top two places in Group C. Barcelona will finish third and earn a Europa League berth. Bayern had already advanced.

• Club Brugge was punished for its defensive mistakes and slumped to its first league loss this season in a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of visiting Porto.

• Inter Milan advanced to the knockout stage.

Inter beat visiting Viktoria Plzen 4-0 to secure at least second spot in Group C with a match remaining.

And, to cap a great night for Inter, the final goal was scored by Romelu Lukaku, four minutes after making his comeback as a late substitute following two months out with injury.

Edin Dzeko scored two of Inter’s other goals, after Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s opener.

WORLD CUP: British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly faced criticism after telling gay soccer fans heading to the World Cup in Qatar that they should show some “compromise” and be “respectful of the host nation.”

The comments were quickly disavowed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office, while a senior figure in the opposition Labour party called them “shockingly tone deaf.”

Homosexuality is criminalized in Qatar and Cleverly was asked about the issue in the wake of British activist Peter Tatchell being questioned by police after holding a one-man protest in front of Qatar’s National Museum, holding up a sign accusing the country of jailing members of the LGBTQ community.

“I have spoken to the Qatari authorities in the past about gay football fans going to watch the World Cup and how they will treat our fans and international fans,” Cleverly told LBC Radio. “They want to make sure that football fans are safe, secure and enjoy themselves, and they know that that means they are going to have to make some compromises in terms of what is an Islamic country with a very different set of cultural norms to our own.

“One of the things I would say for football fans is, you know, please do be respectful of the host nation. They are trying to ensure that people can be themselves and enjoy the football, and I think with a little bit of flex and compromise at both ends, it can be a safe, secure and exciting World Cup.”

Qatar has said all are welcome at the World Cup, including LGBTQ fans, but that visitors should respect the country’s conservative culture, in which public displays of affection – even among heterosexuals – is taboo.

Qatari law calls for a prison sentence of one to three years for adults convicted of consensual gay or lesbian sex. European soccer federations last month announced their intention for captains to wear an armband with a rainbow heart design as part of an anti-discrimination campaign during international matches.

Downing Street quickly rejected Cleverly’s language, saying that people should not have to “compromise who they are.”

• Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez will not be going to the World Cup after he was left out of Mexico’s preliminary roster, with Coach Gerardo Martino opting to include injured duo Raul Jimenez and Jesus Corona instead.

Martino had insisted he would wait as long as possible to announce his selection in order to give Jimenez and Corona time to recover, and both were part of a 31-man roster that will later be winnowed down to 26 for next month World Cup in Qatar.

Despite the fact that two of his key attacking players are currently injured, Martino decided to exclude Hernandez, the former Manchester United striker who now plays for the Los Angeles Galaxy. The Argentine coach had hinted at that decision ahead of a couple of September friendlies, saying “we are simply going with other forwards.”

TENNIS

SWISS INDOORS: Top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz eased into the quarterfinals by beating Botic van de Zandchulp 6-4, 6-2 at Basel, Switzerland.

Third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime was on court before Alcaraz in a first-round match and won 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4 against wild-card entry Marc-Andrea Huesler.

Two seeded players lost their first-round matches, with No. 7 Alex de Minaur falling 6-2, 7-5 against 25th-ranked teenager Holger Rune.

Eighth-seeded Lorenzo Musetti cruised through the first set before losing 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 against Albert Ramos-Vinolas.