Your Guardian sport weekend: FA Cup third round, NFL playoffs begin and the WSL returns

There’s no better way to ease into the football weekend than our essential rolling blog. Sarah Rendell and David Tindall buckle up to bring you breaking news and insights from around the grounds as the Premier League elite join the fray for the FA Cup’s third round. Saturday’s potential giantkillings see Macclesfield meet Crystal Palace, Manchester City host Exeter, Wolves face Shrewsbury, Charlton confront London rivals Chelsea and Burnley face off against Millwall, not forgetting the all-Premier League clash of Tottenham v Aston Villa. Why not join the conversation by emailing matchday.live@theguardian

All-heart Travis Head leaves indelible mark on Ashes series by playing his own game | Angus Fontaine

Fast bowler Mitchell Starc won player of this Ashes series but make no mistake, talismanic bat-out-of-hell Travis Head was the man who ripped out England’s heart and served it to them on a silver platter with a cold beer chaser.With three outlandish centuries across the five Tests, Head’s statistical contribution was immense. He scored 629 runs at an average of 62.9 and a strike-rate of 87.36

Big Bash League momentum builds but its future remains up in the air | Jack Snape

Renegades fans got a kick out of the Melbourne BBL derby last Sunday, as they watched their side triumph in the final over against the crosstown Stars. But it was Australian cricket officials who went home giddy amid an increasingly heated international contest between T20 franchise leagues.The 68,124 at the MCG – the highest BBL crowd since 2017 – were joined by almost 38,000 in Perth to watch the Scorchers beat the Strikers later that night. The combined turnout set the competition’s single-day attendance record of 105,767.It was a statement for the BBL on the same day its major global competitors held their own marquee fixtures

Keeping up with Fran Jones: the tennis star refusing to let rare condition define her

During the first weeks of last year’s clay-court season, Francesca Jones found herself fighting through a breathless three-set tussle in Bogotá that was rapidly falling out of her control. Trailing 5-3 in the final set of her second-round match, an exhausted Jones began her service motion. As she tried to leap into the air and strike the ball, however, she staggered forwards and collapsed to the ground. Two points from defeat, she was steered off the court in a wheelchair.This was an extreme experience for Jones, but it was also painfully reflective of her career until that point

Henry Pollock: ‘I don’t look at a challenge and think what could go wrong? I’m just excited’

Strip away the peroxide hair, the TikTok dancing and the trademark try celebrations and the Northampton and England flanker has a white-hot ambition to be the bestNext Wednesday will be Henry Pollock’s 21st birthday. You slightly feel for his family and friends: what do you buy a guy with the Midas touch? Two tries on debut for England in Cardiff, a British & Irish Lions tour of Australia and a world breakthrough player of the year nomination would be prized accolades for anyone, let alone a bleach-blond tyro with nine Prem starts.A bottle of HP Sauce as an ironic gift, maybe? Sitting across the table in a snow-dusted Northampton is a young athlete who enjoys a bit of banter. But strip away the peripheral stuff – the hairstyle, the black headband, the TikTok dancing and the trademark try celebration – and most striking is his white-hot ambition. “I’m just a normal kid who has this amazing drive to want to be the best,” he says

Brendon McCullum keen to carry on with England but wants to ‘steer the ship’

At the end of a sorry Ashes loss capped off by news of Harry Brook’s ­involvement in a late-night ­incident two months earlier, ­Brendon ­McCullum set out his position as England head coach: if his wings are clipped and his ethos ­compromised then “maybe there is someone ­better” to do the role.The caveat is key here. ­McCullum is keen to continue and having held talks with Richard Thompson and Richard Gould, chair and chief ­executive respectively of the England and Wales Cricket Board, he appears set to – at least for the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka that begins in less than a fortnight.But an ECB review into the Ashes tour is already under way and will run in parallel to this, from which ­recommendations for the Test set-up will follow. While there is acceptance of mistakes in Australia – at 4-1, how could there not be? – McCullum has limits as regards imposed solutions