Striker Chris Wood believes Leicester City's tricky start to the Premier League campaign is the perfect chance to test themselves.

City take on Everton, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United in their opening five fixtures.

Wood, who became only the fifth New Zealander to play in the Premier League when he made his debut for West Brom at Portsmouth five years ago, said instead of being fearful, he was excited by City's tough opening. "As soon as I woke up I checked Twitter and the club website to see our first few games," said the 22-year-old.

"The first five are always the ones you look for and I thought they were going to be very challenging, but it's a good test for us, especially when we've done so well last season.

"The first five games are always going to be the ones where we can test ourselves."

In an ironic twist, City open their campaign at home to Everton just a couple of weeks after they face the Toffees in a friendly in Thailand.

Wood admits their trip could be a useful fact-finding mission ahead of the Premier League kick-off.

"We're all looking forward to going over to Thailand and cracking on with the games against Everton to see what they're about," he said.

"I don't think it will be exactly the same as on the opening day of the season, but it will help us get ready for that.

"The first game of the season is going to be massive. Hopefully it will be a sell-out along with all the home games, and I hope we can prepare well enough during pre-season, get the boys right and make sure we're ready for Everton on the opening day.

"The atmosphere is what makes a game, and we want to give the supporters something to cheer about by winning football matches, that's our job.

"When we see just how many season tickets have been sold and hear talk of sell-out crowds, it spurs us on even more to do well for our fans."

City have now completely sold out of season tickets with well over 22,000 sold, the club has announced.

About 500 additional seats were released to supporters after the renewal period ended and City fans wasted no time in snapping up the remaining tickets.

England's last game of the 2014 World Cup takes place tonight with little to play for apart from pride.

Three Lions fan John Hoolahan, from Birstall, will be among the 58,000 crowd packing the Estadio Mineirao, in Belo Horizonte, in south east Brazil.

He will watch Roy Hodgson's men take on Costa Rica – who have surprised everyone and qualified for the knockout stage of the tournament.

The game has no significance for England who, after losing to Italy and Uruguay, are bottom of Group D, but supporters will be hoping the side can rescue a small amount of dignity with a win in their final game.

John, 30, who bought tickets to all the England games, said: "Both teams have nothing to play for, really, so I'm expecting it to be flat and a draw.

"For England, it's an ideal opportunity to give the likes of Shaw, Jones, Wilshere and Barkley some game time and start shaping a team for the beginning of the Euro qualifying campaign.

"It's another six-hour coach journey there and back from our base in Rio.

"The majority of the fans that have travelled know the players have given everything, but we just weren't up to it.

"Still, I think the fans will be behind England – hoping for a good performance and result."

John, who flew to South America at the start of June to join an estimated 10,000 England fans, said his focus would now turn to Chile – who he is backing to go all the way in the competition.

"The Chile fans have been the best supported team – apart from the home nation, Brazil," he said. "The Chile fans have been so loud and colourful and so friendly and they are a fantastic side and I hope they go on to win it."

Last week, John took a trip to the Christ the Redeemer statue on top of Corcavado mountain, in Rio, to pray for England's chances – but his pleas went unanswered.

He said: "I made it to Corcavado, which in itself was a miracle given the typical Brazilian organisation, but no miracle for England, sadly."

Passengers flying to and from East Midlands Airport experienced delays and flight cancellations today because of an air traffic control strike in France.

Due to a reduced number of staff working in French air traffic control, 46 flights going to, from, or over France were affected - 27 were outbound and 19 were inbound flights.

The 1.10pm Ryanair flight to Lanzarote was cancelled as well as the 4.15pm Ryanair flight to Murcia, in Spain.

Delays ranged from half an hour to three hours.

The strike started today and is due to go on until June 29.

However, negotiations between the union which is striking and French authorities are ongoing, so the end date could potentially change.

Because of the risk of more delays in the coming days passengers concerned about travel plans are advised to contact their airline or travel operator.

Airports all over the UK have been affected by the strike.

England's disappointing World Cup campaign petered out into a damp squib as they played out a goalless draw with table-toppers Costa Rica in Belo Horizonte.

Daniel Sturridge spurned four chances to give England the lead, with the Three Lions' ineptitude in front of goal continuing to the very end.

Costa Rica's attacking threat was stifled by England's new-look back line, failing to show the flair that was on show in their victories over Italy and Uruguay.

Roy Hodgson heeded the calls to make changes to his side for the match, but many of his nine changes seemed more sentimental than inspirational.

Frank Lampard started what was likely to be his final appearance in an England shirt, while James Milner was preferred to the likes of Raheem Sterling and Danny Welbeck.

Sloppiness prevailed in the opening minutes for England, but Luke Shaw showed his potential with a spritely counter-attacking dash down the left wing.

Sturridge had the first chance on goal for England, but the Liverpool striker's shot curled harmlessly wide of Keylor Navas' goal.

Celso Borges tested Ben Foster with a dipping free-kick, after Adam Lallana tripped Joel Campbell, but the West Brom goalkeeper tipped the effort on to the bar and out for a corner.

Sturridge was in the action again and had a good shout for a penalty when Oscar Duarte looked to bring him down, but Djamel Haimoudi waved away the England protests.

England's lone striker then headed a good chance over Navas' crossbar following a Phil Jones knock-down from Ross Barkley's corner.

But with the encouraging signs in the first half came the increasing awareness that England's clinical touch in front of goal was still eluding them.

This was epitomised after the break as well, when Sturridge again found himself through on goal, but a poor first touch let him down, resulting in a lunging tackle on Navas who had rushed out to quell the danger.

Substitute Christian Bolanos had Costa Rica's first real chance on the hour with a pot-shot from 25-yards being comfortably collected by Foster.

Sturridge's fourth chance of the night was probably his best, collecting Jack Wilshere's pass and curling the ball past Navas, but also painfully past the left post.

Hodgson brought on Sterling, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney in the final half-hour in an attempt to force the issue, but England's lacklustre two weeks continued in a familiar vain.

Rooney's late chip brought a smart save from Navas, but Costa Rica, knowing they only needed a draw to go through, defended stoutly to see out the clock.

Los Ticos progressed to the last 16 for the first time since 1990, going through unbeaten as Group D's surprise package.

Leicester City have sent out a clear signal that they mean business in the Premier League.

That is the view of new signing Marc Albrighton, who pin-pointed Kasper Schmeichel's new deal as firm evidence of that.

Schmeichel has signed a new four-year contract with City, despite what the Denmark goalkeeper described as 'interesting' offers from other clubs.

Manager Nigel Pearson is also expected to sign his new contract imminently, while Wes Morgan is also close to agreeing a new deal.

Albrighton said there was a real sense City were moving in the right direction, and the fact that players of the calibre of Schmeichel want to be a part of it was a factor in the winger's decision to join the club after leaving Aston Villa.

"If players like that want to stay, then that shows they think something good is happening here," said the 24-year-old.

"That will go a long way to the club staying in the division next season. I am sure we will have no problems there."

Albrighton said Pearson was also a big factor in his decision, and he was impressed with what the City boss had to say when he met him before agreeing to sign.

"His positivity impressed me," said the former England Under-21 international.

"Everything he said was positive. He has a vision of how he wants to do things.

"I am looking to be play a massive part in that and, hopefully, everyone will pull together and it will go well."

Albrighton's emergence at Villa stalled temporarily as injuries disrupted his progress, but he demonstrated last season he was back to full fitness and is relishing a fresh start at City.

"Without a doubt this is a chance to kick on," he said. "I got injured a couple of years ago and I didn't really recover from that until last year.

"I broke my foot twice, had three quad injuries and my appendix out, so I had a tough run.

"I felt like I got my chance towards the second half of the season. I started to enjoy it again and was playing with a smile on my face, and the confidence was coming back.

"Hopefully, I can keep that momentum going coming into this season with Leicester."

Meanwhile, reports that City have made a £2million offer for Sheffield United defender Harry Maguire are untrue.

The 21-year-old was on City's radar 18 months ago but the club have made no contact with the Blades this summer.

Maguire is one of a number of players linked with City in national newspaper reports which are without substance.

Previous reports that City were in for Benfica striker Oscar Cardoza and Feyenoord striker Graziano Pelle are also inaccurate.

A retired GP whose use of an alternative therapy put a cancer patient at risk of blood poisoning could be struck off.

Dr Philip Jack, 79, was reported to the General Medical Council (GMC) after Leicester Royal Infirmary specialists discovered one of their patients had undergone months of controversial blood oxygenation therapy.

Dr Jack administered major ozone autohemotherapy 84 times to a 69-year-old man suffering from a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in rooms rented from a company in Tamworth, Staffs, as well as the patient's home.

The doctor was later forced to confess that the treatment, in which blood is taken out of the patient, mixed with ozone and re-injected into the vein, was of no proven benefit in treating the disease and put the patient at risk of septicaemia.

He also admitted he had not communicated properly with other doctors involved in the patient's care.

The medic, who also goes by the names Dr Matthew Jack and Dr David Jack, retired from general practice in 1988, but is still fully registered with the GMC.

He could now be struck off or suspended after a hearing before the Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service found his treatment amounted to misconduct.

The tribunal heard that Patient A was diagnosed with a form of blood cancer called waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia – a rare condition similar to low-grade non Hodgkin's lymphoma – in October, 2010.

Specialists at the infirmary adopted a "watch and wait" strategy but, in February, 2011, the patient consulted Dr Jack in rooms hired from Complementary Medical, the sister company of Activated Oxygen Ltd.

The patient had more than 120 consultations with Dr Jack up until July, 2012, including regular weekly ozone sessions.

The therapy purports to increase the amount of oxygen in the body by introducing ozone into the blood.

Prof Martin Dyer, a senior oncologist and haematologist who was treating Patient A at the infirmary, called the treatment a "dreadful practice".

He said: "This is a major, significant operation. It is not trivial, so in short it is a potentially dangerous procedure."

The patient is still being treated at the infirmary and is said to be in good health.

Alan Taylor, for the GMC, said exposing the patient to septicaemia between February, 2011, and July, 2012 when there was no possible benefit to him was a "serious breach" of professional guidelines and would be seen as "deplorable" by other doctors.

Russell Davies, defending, said Dr Jack had never claimed the treatment was a cure and only hoped it would boost the man's immune system.

In a witness statement, Dr Jack said: "By the standards of alternative medicine, I believe that my treatment of Patient A was in accordance with accepted practice.

"I am not sure that this is the standard which the GMC is applying to my involvement in Patient A's care but I think it should be, as the approach which he agreed to and which I adopted was an alternative approach when he became disillusioned with the approach adopted by conventional medicine."

Panel chairman Kathryn Whitehill said: "The panel is concerned by your evidence that you could see no benefit to Patient A, yet you continued to provide the treatment over a considerable period of time.

"It finds that you failed to take proper account of the risks to Patient A."

She added that Dr Jack failed to communicate with others involved in the patient's treatment and his lack of record- keeping was criticised. The panel will meet next month to decide what sanction to impose on Jack's registration.

A murder trial fell silent as neurosurgeon Dr Muhammad Taufiq told of his devastation at losing his entire family in an arson attack.

Dr Taufiq, who stood in the witness box with his wife Shehnila's Koran, told the judge, lawyers, defendants and the public gallery of the extent of his loss.

He said: "I give this statement to express my personal feelings since the deaths of my entire family – my wife Shehnila Taufiq, 47, my son Bilal, 17, Jamal, 15, and my daughter Zainab, 19."

He said their combined 98 years of memories and relationships had all been "abruptly ended all because of a heartless, malicious attack".

Dr Taufiq, who broke down in tears while giving the statement at Nottingham Crown Court, said: "I am the only surviving victim of this heinous attack. Words cannot describe the pain that I have to endure and continue to endure every living moment."

He said the people responsible should spend the rest of their lives in prison.

A judge will pass sentence on the killers today.

Dr Taufiq said that before the family home was destroyed in the early hours of Friday, September 13, last year, his family was planning a community project in Ireland.

He said: "We had a vision to set up a community centre, prayer facility, faith school, restaurant and convenience store and a small healthcare facility all under one roof to serve our community in Dublin.

"We had gotten so close to materialising the dream, we had purchased a premise to serve these functions.

"Little did any of us know that this dream would always remain incomplete.

"This is a team effort and my team has been murdered."

He said they had chosen a modest home in Leicester despite being wealthy so money could be channelled into the project.

His wife and children had been on training courses in readiness for opening the complex in September this year.

He said the project had also been hit by the severe damage caused to their home in Wood Hill, Leicester, which they planned to sell to help finance it. The house was not insured.

He said the fire also destroyed all their possessions and many of the memories that went with them.

Dr Taufiq said: "This fire has stolen everything from me, I am completely alone.

"I have lost my soul-mates, my confidante and my best friends. I have no one to talk to and share my feelings with.

"Shehnila was the one and only person that I trusted unconditionally.

"I will never see my children grow up, graduate, or get married. You can't hold their hands, embrace them, listen to them and talk to them. I did not get to say goodbye.

"My faith and support network keeps me going. I merely exist.

"I am like a brutally wounded bird without wings."

He was speaking after a jury had unanimously convicted Tristan Richards, (22), of Sparkenhoe Street, Highfields, and Kemo Porter, (19), of Browning Street, West End, of four counts of murder.

Shaun Carter, 24, of Franche Rd, Dane Hills, was unanimously convicted of four counts of manslaughter.

The jury also convicted five defendants on majority verdicts on four counts of manslaughter.

They are Aaron Webb (20), of Saltersford Road, North Evington, Leicester; Jackson Powell (20), of Burnside Road, Saffron Lane Estate, Leicester; Nathaniel Mullings (19), of Farrington Street, off Humberstone Road, Leicester, and Akeem Jeffers (21), of Car Mills, Buslingthorpe Lane, Leeds, and Cairo Parker (17), of Wood Hill.

Mart Heslop QC, for Kemo Porter, said everyone in the court felt the upmost sympathy for Dr Taufiq but he said sentencing was covered by strict guidelines.

He admitted his client and Tristan Richards faced a minimum sentence of 30 years each. He said the majority of the defendants were of previous good character and what had happened was completely out of character.

Barristers on behalf of all the other defendants in mitigation said that the incident was out of character.

Each barrister said their clients must be sentenced according to the extent of their participation in the attack.

Mr Alibajwa QC, for Cairo Parker, said his client was only 16 at the time and was young for his years.

But the judge, the Honourable Mr Justice John Griffith Williams, said: "From what I have seen in the dock there has been little remorse but a lot of self-pity."

About 400 people have responded to a second consultation on changes to school transport.

Leicestershire County Council is proposing to take children to their nearest school, which could be outside the county, or nearest Leicestershire school which offers an appropriate age range.

Where there have been no changes to admission catchments or age ranges since May, 2012, the current arrangements would continue.

A spokesman for the county council said: "We have received about 400 replies to our consultation questionnaire and a number of separate responses from schools and parents.

"We're in the process of analysing them.

"The responses will be considered by the council's scrutiny commission on July 11 and by the cabinet on July 15."

An earlier consultation, which proposed only providing transport to a child's nearest school, prompted about 2,000 responses, with concerned parents saying historical relationships with schools could be torn apart.

Councillor Peter Osborne, cabinet member for highways and transport, has said the changes were necessary because of alterations to age ranges and catchment areas, meaning pupils were becoming eligible for transport to a number of schools.

Simon Galton, Liberal Democrat leader at the county council, was among those who called for a rethink.

He said: "Compared to the original proposal, which garnered about 2,000 objections, this is somewhat better in that it will enable some children to receive transport to their existing catchment area school.

"However, it's still not a solution for other parts of the county where schools will be competing with one another for students because of age range changes.

"In Leicestershire, parents understand the historical links that have been made between schools and their transport arrangement.

"It will be very interesting to see what comments come out of the 400 responses to see if there are any common themes of concern which need to be further addressed. It may be that scrutiny makes further recommendations to cabinet."

The Liberal Democrat group had proposed the creation of "travel areas," similar to the old catchment areas.

These would be controlled by the council rather than schools, so there would be no danger of schools demanding transport from across the whole county.

However, this idea has not been taken up for consideration.

Michelle Woodhouse, from Scraptoft, has two daughters – one soon to start at Beauchamp College and the other due to move to Gartree High, Oadby.

She responded to the consultation and said it was "confusing for parents" and provided no guarantees for the future.

She said: "Although the changes go some way to addressing the issue for me and my area because we shouted the loudest, it doesn't solve it for others.

"The county council seems to be delaying and I don't think it has really looked into the other options and how viable they are.

"It appears to have dismissed them from the off without looking into them in full detail."

Cases dealt with at Leicester Magistrates' Court include:

Dean Pugh (46), of Newton Lane, Wigston, pleaded guilty to exceeding a 30mph speed limit at Glen Road, Newton Harcourt, on November 8. He was fined £40 with £20 costs and a £20 victim surcharge. Three penalty points were put on his driving licence.

Declan Maurice Michael Ivers (18), of Hand Avenue, Braunstone, pleaded guilty to damaging six windows, plus boarding and fitting, worth £650 belonging to Winstanley Community College, Braunstone, on December 7. He was given a community order to spend 24 hours at an attendance centre and pay £650 compensation.

Anthony Roy Richards (36), of Burdock Close, Hamilton, was proven guilty of driving on Abbey Park Road, Leicester on November 22 without wearing a seatbelt. He was fined £200 with £85 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

Craig Alexon Riley (51), of Farm Close, Holy Cross, Leicester, was proven guilty in absence of exceeding a 30 mph limit at Glen Road, Newton Harcourt, on November 8. He was fined £150 with £85 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.