FOOTBALL: Roy Hodgson has promised that his England team will belt out God Save the Queen before their games kick off in Brazil.

He said he’ll remind his squad to blast out the dreary ode to the unelected head of state “because we are proud.

“You very rarely play against opponents and they haven’t got their hands on their hearts and singing their anthem as loud as they can,” he pointed out, though didn’t opine as to whether that was due to the relative quality of different songs.

RUGBY LEAGUE: Hull KR centre Sean Gleeson announced his retirement yesterday after failing to recover from a brutal assault outside a Manchester nightclub.

The 26-year-old originally feared he might lose an eye after being repeatedly punched in the face by three men in March.

He took the decision to quit after speaking to medical experts last week.

FOOTBALL: Falkrik confirmed yesterday that manager Gary Holt has quit his position after accepting a return to former club Norwich.

Holt has agreed to return to Neil Adams’s coaching staff after his first brief managerial foray, in which he managed to take the Bairns to third in the Scottish Championship.

BOXING: Mikkel Kessler said yesterday that he wants to challenge Carl Froch for his IBF and WBA super-middleweight belts after challenger George Groves was floored on Saturday.

The 35-year-old beat Froch in 2010 but lost on points to the Nottingham fighter in May 2013.

FOOTBALL: Spain star David Villa became New York City FC’s first-ever player yesterday.

The 32-year-old signed to the club, jointly owned by Manchester City and the New York Yankees, on a three-year deal.