Newport County still have no idea when they will be able to strengthen their squad after losing six players this week. The League Two club said farewell to out-of-contract first teamers – including key men Jamille Matt and Scot Bennett – due to the growing uncertainty over their financial position. But there is also huge doubt over when and how they may be able to sign fresh players with the transfer window period still not settled.

Not all sports are moving at the same pace towards a workable future. But thanks to some innovative thinking, karate in north Wales is catering for its regular members as well as helping entice potential new recruits among disabled people, as Reuben Florence told Graham Thomas. Teaching karate during a global pandemic is not easy, but that hasn’t prevented Reuben Florence from showcasing the sport to disabled people in North Wales. Reuben – founder and chief instructor at Dragon Karate Cymru in Bangor – recently opened his doors to new enthusiasts as part of the Virtual Insport Series hosted by Disability Sport Wales and sponsored by SPAR.

Super Rugby may have returned to New Zealand – with crowds – but the activity of watching live top level rugby remains a distant prospect here in Wales. Owen Morgan has done all his fantasy teams, so he’s moved onto his fantasy fans. Watching S4C’s highlights of the Super Rugby matches from New Zealand the other day, I started wondering when we would be able to enjoy similar scenes in Wales. When would we be able to go for a pint on the way to the ground, sit amongst friends and celebrate, or drown our sorrows after a match?

The spectacle of MMA returned to Las Vegas last weekend and there is hope that octagons elsewhere around the globe could soon be open for business. That will prove good news for Welsh fighters, aiming to resume operations in one of the world’s fastest growing sports. To set the scene for their return, Chris Saunders profiles six of the best from Wales. The Welsh have always been fighters. It’s in our DNA. Once upon a time, this predilection for violence was played out on secluded mountain tops, long before the likes of Howard Winstone, Johnny Owen, Joe Calzaghe and Nathan Cleverly quite literally carried the flag into the boxing ring.

Rhian Brewster has told his Swansea City teammates they must not let standards slips as they chase down a place in the Championship play-offs. The on-loan striker scored twice in the club’s eye-catching 3-0 victory over Middlesbrough last weekend that moved the Swans to within a point of sixth place. Boosted by the agreement reached to extend the contracts of five players to the end of the current season, the club’s brisk resumption cannot now be squandered, says Brewster.

The self-confessed “quick, brainless winger” has returned to football management with Neil Warnock about to take charge of his 16th League club. Middlesbrough is the latest stop-off in Warnock’s 35-year odyssey as the man who left Cardiff City last November prepares to take over from the sacked head coach Jonathan Woodgate. In a perfect football script, Boro and Warnock are now due to host promotion-chasing Cardiff on the penultimate weekend of the season on July 18.

Ieuan Evans admits to feeling the same tingle of excitement that greeted the first of his then record 72 Welsh caps as he prepares himself for a possible return to national duties. His glittering array of rugby credentials – five Welsh cup wins and a try in the triumph over Australia with Llanelli, a Heineken Cup victory with Bath, three British and Irish Lions tours, 34 Test tries and 28 games as Wales captain – provide a solid bedrock for his bid to take a seat on the Welsh Rugby Union council. But the 56-year-old World Rugby Hall of Famer wants the 300 clubs to consider his business background first and foremost as he prepares for a special webinar Q&A session on Thursday ahead of the election for a seat as a national representative.

Welsh rugby’s regional players will return from furlough next week as they prepare to re-start their Guinness Pro 14 season. Players from Cardiff Blues, Ospreys, Scarlets and the Dragons will return to organised training for the first time, although in small groups, with strict social distancing and following a Covid-19 testing regime. The routines will be basic, with no close contact, with the hope the sessions can be normalised as the squads head towards the planned resumption of matches on August 22.

The cancellation of the second running of the Get Connected Rali Bae Ceredigion will not prevent the event developing into one of the biggest and best rallies in the UK – that’s the promise from organising chairman and former international rally navigator Phil Pugh. Wales’ first closed road stage rally ran for the first time last September, and would have run again this September had it not been for the coronavirus pandemic.

Gower Riders Cycling Club will soon be celebrating a special milestone. On Sunday 28th June, the club will be holding their 100th virtual turbo session, and have planned a big, five-hour event on that date, to mark their achievement. The sessions, which are delivered by volunteer coaches at the club, have taken place every day since lockdown started and have made a huge difference to riders of all ages, and varying ability levels, from many other clubs, across Wales and England.

Leading Welsh athletes can go back to training from today, but the race for the gym or track is likely to be steady rather than spectacular. With so many boxes to be ticked, the message will be not to run before you can walk as Commonwealth Games Wales’ Chris Jenkins and Sport Wales’ Owen Lewis tell Graham Thomas. Elite Welsh athletes have been urged to show patience and understanding as they start to resume training over the next few weeks. As lockdown restrictions in Wales continue to be eased gradually, the prospect of getting back on track, in a gym, pool, court or mat is starting to give itchy feet to the nation’s top competitors.

Jake Heyward blazed a trail for Welsh athletes returning to track action in the early hours of Sunday morning. As athletics takes its first tentative steps back to normality following the coronavirus shutdown, the Cardiff middle distance star took part in a high-profile and innovative event in the United States. Heyward was making his competitive debut for the world famous Oregon Track Club Elite, despite having made the move to the United States late last year.

Neil Harris paid tribute to his Cardiff City players after they delivered what he called a fitting tribute to the late Peter Whittingham. The Bluebirds manager made a poignant reference to Whittingham after seeing his team move to the brink of the play-off places with an uplifting 2-0 victory over Leeds United on Sunday. The win – in Cardiff’s first game back after lockdown – was preceded by a minute’s applause that honoured club legend Whittingham, who died from a brain injury in March.

A year ago Anthony Buchanan launched an ‘SOS’ appeal to try to safeguard the future of Llanelli rugby club. How could one of the greatest club rugby names in the world game be under threat, most people thought, but Buchanan wanted to let everyone know just how close to extinction the club he played for and served for so long actually was. The original ‘Scarlets’, formed in 1872, had just hung onto their Welsh Premiership status with a dramatic play-off victory over Championship winners Pontypool and the former Wales prop set about improving performance on and off the field for last season.

Sean Morrison aims to help Cardiff City force a submission from Leeds United today – just as the Hulk Hogan fan did at Elland Road back in December. It may not be the wrestling ring – and there will certainly be no live audience – but there will still be a strong sense of theatre when the two clubs go head-to-head in a noon showdown. Back before lockdown, the Championship rivals met six months ago when Morrison inspired a Cardiff comeback from 3-0 down to snatch a 3-3 draw and got sent off – all the while sporting a dyed blond moustache and with a Hulk Hogan costume on his dressing room peg.

Steve Cooper heaped praise on Rhian Brewster after the Swansea City striker gave a performance as powerful as the anti-racism message he displayed at Middlesbrough The 20-year-old Liverpool loanee struck twice inside three first-half minutes, unveiling a T-shirt bearing the message “Our colour is not a crime” while celebrating the first, as the Swans ran out 3-0 winners at the Riverside Stadium on their return to action. Andre Ayew wrapped up a win which keeps his team firmly in the race for the play-offs with a 34th-minute penalty on a day when struggling Boro, who have won only twice in the league since the turn of the year, simply gave themselves too much to do with a dreadful start.

With the return of live rugby still some way off, S4C  and Clwb Rygbi continue to mine the rich seam of classic games from the past. This evening, they have a belter of a club clash from the early 1990s, a period when Llanelli and Neath were the strongest forces in the land and fierce rivals. Former Scarlets Ieuan Evans and Emyr Lewis recall the famous 1993 Swalec Cup final.

Rhian Brewster and Conor Gallagher will be re-launched at Championship rivals today as Swansea City bid to achieve an unlikely promotion.  Head coach Steve Cooper – who takes his team to Middlesbrough for their resumption of the campaign – hopes he can keep the young starlets in Wales next season, too. Liverpool forward Brewster and Chelsea’s Gallagher – both 20 – are on loan at the Liberty Stadium and their deals to stay in south Wales expire at the end of June.

Carmarthen Town goalkeeper Lee Idzi has given the club a huge boost by confirming his intentions to remain at Richmond Park despite the club’s recent relegation. Carmarthen’s demotion into the Cymru South was confirmed this week after the FAW executive board met to decide the fate of clubs finishing in promotion and relegation spaces. Idzi, who has played in the domestic top-flight for the last 12 seasons, had been tipped by some to move on to remain in the Cymru Premier – but revealed on social media that he wants to help get the club back up.

Andrew Lord is leaving Cardiff Devils – bring to an end a trophy-laden six years with the club. An emotional and tearful Lord revealed today that he is stepping down as the most successful head coach in the club’s history following half a dozen years of unprecedented success in Wales. The Canadian has accepted a new coaching role in North America, understood to be in the USA.