He twisted his right leg and partially ruptured his knee-cap tendon after catching his foot in a divot on the rain-soaked San Siro pitch. Minutes before limping off he had scored from the penalty spot.The Brazilian has been hampered by knee problems during hid career (he underwent surgery on his right knee in 1996 when playing for PSV Eindhoven), but particularly over the past two seasons and he has never recaptured the breathtaking form he showed during his first season in Italy in 1997- 98.He was despondent about the latest injury "I don't know what to say I only say that I'm incredibly unlucky," he said "Nothing can go right, not for me, not for Inter. I'm really sorry for our supporters."Ronaldo played only 11 full matches for Inter last season and has played for 90 minutes in only two of the club's 11 games this season.The latest injury came only a week after a bizarre argument between his club and country, when Ronaldo travelled across the world to play for the Brazil Under-23 team in a tour of Australia Inter said they had only released him for one game. When Fifa, football's world governing body, ruled in their favour, Wanderley Luxemburgo, Brazil's coach, took his anger out on the player, saying Ronaldo was no use for one match and sent him back to Italy without kicking a ball.The Italian football federation launched an investigation yesterday into an allegation that Luca Bucci, the Torino goalkeeper, stubbed a cigarette out in the face of an official from the Serie A side Perugia.The incident allegedly took place after Sunday's league match between the two sides in Turin, which Perugia won 1-0.

"We've opened an inquiry and officials have already been appointed to go to both clubs and find out as much as they can about this accusation," a federation spokesman said."They'll then publish their results. I have no idea when that will be as we, like everyone else, only heard about this last night."Perugia said in a statement issued late on Monday that Bucci, capped three times by Italy, had stubbed a cigarette out in the face of their sporting director, Ermanno Pieroni, following an earlier scuffle in the players' tunnel. Perugia also claimed Pieroni had been kicked during the scuffle."Around 45 minutes later, while Pieroni was waiting in the club car park for the players to leave the stadium, he was unexpectedly attacked again by Bucci," the statement said. "[Bucci] approached him with a lighted cigarette and stubbed it out in his face, causing a burn."A Perugia spokesman said that the club had nothing to add to the statement but welcomed the federation's action. "This will go to the federation's sporting judges and hopefully that will resolve the case," the spokesman said. "It is not the sort of thing which should go to court."Ill feeling between the two clubs dates to the 1997-98 season, when Perugia beat Torino on penalties in a play-off to clinch promotion to Serie A.

Last season, vandals slashed tyres on a Perugia team bus before the Umbrian club's league match at Milan. The Italian media blamed the attack on Torino fans although the culprits were never caught.Newspapers speculated that the alleged incident at Turin's Delle Alpi stadium on Sunday might be related to a short spell Bucci spent as a Perugia player in early 1997. The 30-year-old left Perugia that year and joined Torino in 1998 and helped them win promotion last season.. ST HELENS have completed the signing of South Sydney's mercurial scrum-half, Darrell Trindall, whose nickname of "Tricky" sums up the problems of handling him off the pitch as much as his elusiveness on it. Trindall, aged 27, has been sent off five times and has run into disciplinary problems away from the field of play as well, but the Saints coach, Ellery Hanley, clearly believes he can get the best from him. As a specialist No 7, Trindall's arrival points to last year's Super League player of the year, Sean Long, spending more time at stand-off next season, which in turn puts pressure on Tommy Martyn's position in the side.Trindall, who is moving on before the fate of South Sydney's appeal against their exclusion from the National Rugby League is known, is the second overseas player, after Auckland's Bryan Henare, to join the Super League champions during the close season.Both could make their debuts in the Boxing Day derby at Wigan - a match from which Saints' Great Britain hooker, Keiron Cunningham, is likely to be an absentee after an elbow operation yesterday. He is one of five St Helens players to have major surgery this winter and is predicted to be out for six weeks.A decision is expected soon on whether Sean Hoppe or Des Clark, both of whom spent the latter stages of last season on short-term contracts at Saints, will be retained.Wigan must pay Leeds more than three times their original offer for their hooker, Terry Newton, a Rugby League tribunal has ruled. Wigan had offered pounds 40,000, but must pay an initial fee of pounds 90,000, possibly rising to a maximum of pounds 145,000 in a series of increments if Newton plays for England and Great Britain.London Broncos, who signed Jon Clarke and Andy Johnson from Wigan earlier this week, have not given up hope of persuading the Australian centre or wing, Danny Moore, to follow the same route by joining them.Moore, a first-team regular at Wigan for the past two years, has already rejected a move to the Broncos, but the signings of Steve Renouf and Brett Dallas make his first-team opportunities next year look distinctly limited.The Melbourne Storm have warned Wigan off their coach, Chris Anderson, one of the men linked with the vacant job at the JJB Stadium.