Madrid, April 3 : Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti may have tried to assure fans and press that there is no need to worry about a possible serious injury to Cristiano Ronaldo's left knee, but the fact is Ronaldo's knee could be a big problem for the Spanish giants and perhaps Portugal.

Ronaldo limped out of the last 10 minutes of his side's 3-0 Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund Wednesday night with a worried look on his face as a result of pain in his left knee, reports Xinhua.

Madrid, April 2 - Barcelona defender Gerard Pique will rest for four weeks after picking up a hairline fracture of his right hip, the Spanish club has said.

Pique fell hard on his right side in an effort to head a long ball in Tuesday's 1-1 Champions League quarterfinal draw against Atletico Madrid, reports Xinhua.

The injury will force him out of the April 9 return leg at Atletico. (IANS)

Is it accurate to say that you are a serial texter? If the answer is yes then you could wind up with a conclusion of "Whatsappitis".

A pregnant lady in Granada who reached a hospital with sore wrists after over-utilizing the cell phone was told that this was due to quick message service and she is the first patient to experience the ill effects of this condition.

Ines M Fernandez-Guerrero of General University Hospital in Granada recorded the case in the most recent release of a Journal.

Madrid, March 24 - FC Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 4-3 in an incredible game of football in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium Sunday night to throw the race for the league title in Spain wide open.

Leo Messi scored a hat-trick, with two of his goals coming from the penalty spot in a night when referee Undiano Mallenco was one of the main protagonists, Xinhua reported.

Madrid, March 19 : Real Madrid paid a heavy price for their qualification to the last 8 of the Champions League football against Schalke 04 when striker Jese Rodriguez was taken to hospital with what looked like a knee ligament injury.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored twice and Alvaro Morata, gave Madrid a 3-1 win Tuesday night on the night and a 9-2 aggregate win, but perhaps Jese will be the player who takes the headlines, reports Xinhua.

Madrid, March 19 - FC Barcelona announced Tuesday that the club has reached an agreement with young central defender Marc Bartra to extend his contract into the end of June 2017.

The new contract raises Bartra's buyout clause to 25 million euros and confirms the 23-year-old's progression to becoming a regular member of the first team squad, Xinhua reported.

Bartra joined Barcelona when he was just 11 years old and progressed through the ranks of the youth system, making his first team debut in the 2009-10 season, when he played at right back against Atletico Madrid.

Madrid, March 7 : Brazil-born Diego Costa looks certain to be included in Spain's squad for the forthcoming World Cup finals in Brazil despite a disappointing international debut.

Spain's 1-0 win against Italy may have been played Wednesday night in the Vicente Calderon Stadium where Costa earns his corn week in week out with Atletico Madrid, but at times he looked a stranger to his teammates in the Spain shirt, reports Xinhua.

Madrid, Feb 23 - Gareth Bale scored a magnificent goal to all but assure what turned into a comfortable 3-0 home win over Elche Saturday night, Xinhua reported.

Real Madrid were leading by 1-0 in the 72nd minute of the game when the Welshman received the ball around 10 yards from the edge of the Elche penalty area and thrashed a swerving shot into the back of the goal.

Until that moment his side had been in control against a side fighting to avoid relegation but had failed to create many clear cut chances.

Madrid, Jan 24 - Spain's Real Madrid remained the world's richest football team for the ninth consecutive year, followed by FC Barcelona, according to a study published by Deloitte.

The study, Football Money League, published Thursday analyzes the teams financial information of the 2012-2013 season, reported Xinhua.

According to the study, Real Madrid's turnover reached 518.9 million euros ($710.7 million) in the 2012-2013 season, which meant an 1.2 percent increase when compared with the 2011-2012 season.

Madrid, Jan 8 : FC Barcelona's veteran midfielder Xavi Hernandez said he hopes to end his career with the Spanish giants but is not sure if that will happen.

Although that may shock Barca fans at first reading, it is not a massive surprise given that Xavi will celebrate his 34th birthday at the end of the month and has a contract until the end of June 2016, by which time he will be 36 years old, reports Xinhua.

Madrid, Jan 4 : Lionel Messi is back and raring to go as FC Barcelona prepare to kick off 2014 with a home match against Elche in the Spanish La Liga Sunday.

It promises to be a hectic start to the year for the reigning champions and BBVA Primera Liga leaders as the Elche game is followed by a Copa del Rey tie against Getafe in midweek ahead of their trip to face second place Atletico Madrid in the Vicente Calderon Stadium next weekend, reports Xinhua.

The good news for Barca coach Tata Martino is that he will once again be able to count on a full complement of players for what is an intense schedule.

Madrid, Dec 14 : Spanish national football coach Vicente del Bosque said that he found it hard to imagine the Primera Liga football without the presence of Barcelona or the Spanish national team without Catalan players.

Del Bosque was speaking on Spanish national radio the day after the Catalan nationalist parties announced Nov 9, 2014 as the date for a proposed referendum over the Catalan region in the north east of Spain, reports Xinhua.

Madrid, Dec 11 : Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo made Champions League history Tuesday night when he scored in his side's 2-0 win in Copenhagen.

Ronaldo's goal, the second of the night, was significant, not just because it helped Madrid to seal the victory, but because it saw him set a new record for the number of goals scored in the group stage of the competition.

Ronaldo has scored nine goals in this season's Champions League, beating the previous best of eight, which he had shared with a group of elite players including Paris Saint Germain's Zlatan Ibrahomovich.

Madrid, Dec 10 : Some 100 Spanish companies plan to create more than 32,000 direct job opportunities next year thanks to the improvement of Spain's economic situation, according to media reports.

Thousands of indirect jobs will also be created, Xinhua cited report from the economic newspaper Expansion.

Spain is suffering from high unemployment with over 4.8 million people unemployed in November, according to the government, while around 50 percent of the youth are without a job.

Madrid, Nov 27 : The number of home mortgages in Spain fell by 30.9 percent in September compared with the same month in 2012, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported Tuesday.

The INE said that the number of home mortgages fell to 14,856 in the ninth month of the year, one of the lowest figures since 2003, reported Xinhua.

According to the INE, the average value of home mortgages reached 97,298 Euros ($131,976), 5.5 percent down on September 2012 figure, while the amount of capital loaned decreased by 34.7 percent in annual terms to a total of 1.445 billion Euros.

Madrid, Oct 12 - Maria de Villota, the former pilot and first woman racing in F1, was found dead Friday morning at a hotel in the Spanish city of Seville.

Spanish police confirmed that the 33-year-old, who had been in motor- racing for 12 years, died of natural causes, and some sources suggest that these may be related to the serious accident she suffered last year, Xinhua reported.

Madrid, Sep 26 : Spanish Primera Liga football club Valencia has decided to temporarily suspend the club's French international defender Adil Rami.

Until the club reaches a decision over what to do with Rami, the 27-year-old will not train or receive his salary from the club, reports Xinhua.

Meanwhile, Rami was sent back to Valencia from Granada, where he was with the team to play the local side Wednesday night.

The central defender slept in a different hotel to his team-mates and left the city in the early hours of the morning, arriving back in Valencia at 11:00 am.

Madrid, Sep 12 : Recently crowned US Open champion Rafael Nadal has arrived here to help Spain make sure of their presence in the world tennis elite.

Over the coming three days, Spain play Ukraine in the Davis Cup in Madrid's Caja Magica looking to ensure their continuation in the World Group after a surprising first round exit to Canada in February.

Nadal was not part of that defeat as he put the finishing touches to his recovery from the long term knee injury which had sidelined him since his second round exit in Wimbledon 2012.

Madrid, Sep 11 - FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi and his father will appear in court Sep 27 to answer charges of tax evasion. The change of date came after the postponement of a hearing, scheduled for next week.

Messi and his father face charges of filing incomplete tax returns for the years 2006-2009 and have already made a payment of over five million euros to the Spanish tax authorities Aug 14, reports Xinhua.

Madrid, Sep 5 - Spanish Primera Liga club Osasuna Wednesday confirmed Javier Gracia as the successor to Jose Luis Mendilibar, who was sacked by the Pamplona based football club Tuesday.

Gracia signed a two-year contract with Osasuna, who are currently bottom of the Spanish football league table after losing their first three games of the season, Xinhua reported.

Gracia will be officially presented to the press and fans Thursday.

As a coach, Gracia has worked in the Villarreal youth system before moving up to the B-team.