NEW YORK: The New York Jets will face the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers without Le’Veon Bell.

The star running back was placed on injured reserve Tuesday with a hamstring injury. Bell was hurt in the second quarter of the Jets’ season-opening 27-17 loss at Buffalo on Sunday.

He will miss at least the next three games, and be eligible to return to the active roster in Week 5.

The Jets also announced they have placed rookie wide receiver Denzel Mims (hamstring) and second-year linebacker Blake Cashman (groin) on injured reserve.

The team also signed running back Kalen Ballage to the active roster after a trade for him on Aug. 27 fell through three days later when he failed his physical with the Jets. New York had sent a conditional seventh-round pick to Miami for Ballage, who played one season under coach Adam Gase with the Dolphins.

With Bell sidelined, 37-year-old Frank Gore was the team’s only healthy running back on the active roster. Josh Adams was elevated from the practice squad and played against the Bills. He’s likely to be elevated again this week. As part of this year’s rules changes, players can be elevated twice from a team’s practice squad and returned without passing through waivers.

Rookie fourth-rounder La’Mical Perine has been sidelined the past few weeks with an ankle injury, and it’s uncertain if he’ll be healthy enough to play Sunday in the home opener.

Gase said Monday he didnt want to put a timetable on Bells return, but said it was possible it could take some time because its a soft-tissue injury. He also expressed optimism that Bell could heal quicker than anticipated.

He returned for the second half, with his left leg wrapped, but was removed shortly into the third quarter. Bell finished with six carries for 14 yards and two receptions for 32 yards in the 27-17 loss.

Ballage ran for 191 yards on 36 carries a 5.3 yard average and a touchdown, along with nine catches for 56 yards in 2018 while playing in Gase’s offense. He struggled last year, averaging only 1.8 yards per carry while finishing with 135 yards on 74 attempts. It was the worst rushing average by a running back with at least 70 carries since Phil Sarboe had a 1.2-yard average for two teams in 1936.

Ballage spent the last four weeks last season on injured reserve after hurting his left leg. He was waived by Miami with an injury settlement earlier this month.

Mims, a second-round pick, was sidelined for much of training camp with a hamstring injury. The Jets eased him back to the practice field and Mims was on track to play against Buffalo, but he injured his other hamstring and was sidelined for the opener.

Cashman was hurt early in the first quarter of the opener. It’s the latest setback for the 2019 fifth-rounder, who missed the second half of last season with a shoulder injury. His absence leaves the Jets short-handed at inside linebacker with Neville Hewitt is the only healthy player at the position.

Harvey Langi, normally an outside linebacker, filled in for Cashman at Buffalo, but New York could elevate recently signed veteran Alec Ogletree from the practice squad.

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LONDON: After a slew of high-profile signings in its top league, womens soccer in England further underscored its growing resilience during the pandemic by securing a new three-year sponsor for the FA Cup.

Vitality, a health and insurance company, will begin its deal from the quarterfinals of the pandemic-delayed 2019-20 competition that resumes this month.

Brushing aside concerns over its long-term future because of the coronavirus outbreak, the womens game in England is on an upward trajectory fueled by a domestic sponsorship deal of its Super League starting this year reportedly worth more than 10 million pounds ($13.2 million) over the next three seasons.

Overseas TV deals have also been sealed in Scandinavia and Central America, helping give clubs the revenue to enable them to afford top players including Americans Alex Morgan, Rose Lavelle and Tobin Heath and Denmarks Pernille Harder, all of whom have moved to England in recent weeks.

I was confident that with the fantastic momentum that had been built in the womens game, we would come back strongly and keep building on that, Kelly Simmons, the FAs director of Women’s Professional Game, said as Vitalitys sponsorship deal was announced.

Youd think at the moment sports sponsorship would be a difficult space to get new partners in, because nobody knows the true impact yet of COVID in any industry or walk of life. Just as we dont in football, because we dont know when fans will come back.

The six-month suspension of the womens league play because of the pandemic ended this month with the start of the new Super League season, with matches being played without fans.

More than 3 million people watched, either live or through highlights, the Community Shield season curtain-raiser between Chelsea and Manchester City on Aug. 29, Simmons said.

They are fantastic markers that we have come back strongly, she said.

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Bayern Munich's Kingsley Coman is in isolation at home ahead of the new Bundesliga season after he had contact with a person infected with the coronavirus, the Champions League-winning club said Tuesday.

Bayern didn't say how long the France winger would need to spend in quarantine, or whether he's available to play Schalke on Friday in the German champion's first league game of the new season.

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Bayern said Coman tested negative for the coronavirus on Sunday.

'Coman will keep himself fit at home with remote virtual training sessions', the club said.

Coman scored the only goal of the game when Bayern beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in the Champions League final last month.