MONTREAL — A healthy Johnny Manziel is wondering why he’s isn’t starting for the Montreal Alouettes.

The Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback returned to practice Thursday and asked out loud if the club had lost faith in him.

The 25-year-old said he had been healthy and available to play for the previous two weeks, fully recovered from the concussion he suffered in his second start for the Als — a 24-17 loss to Ottawa on Aug. 11.

Manziel missed two games while under concussion protocol but was available for the team’s win over Ottawa on Aug. 31 when he didn’t play. The Alouettes had a bye week last week.

“If the club had faith in me, I feel like I would be the guy, I feel like I would’ve been the guy after I came back from the concussion,” Manziel said. “That hasn’t happened, so I need to continue to get out here. And it’s the hardest part about missing practice, I need these reps to try to leave as little doubt as possible in my ability to play.”

Manziel was at practice for the first time this week after being sidelined by a flu bug that required IVs to replace fluids Tuesday and Wednesday. Though he said he was well enough to play Friday night when the Alouettes (3-8-0) host the B.C. Lions (4-6-0), Antonio Pipkin is expected to start. Matthew Shiltz is the other quarterback on the roster.

“I hope this organization, I hope the people here haven’t lost faith in my ability to play, and I still get a chance to come back and get a chance to be in with the [starters] and play, because that’s what I came up here to do and that’s what I want to do,” Manziel said.

Als coach Mike Sherman said it was “too soon” to predict whether Manziel would be the team’s third quarterback Friday.

“Seems like he’s doing better, so we’ll evaluate him a little bit more. I really haven’t even talked to the trainers about him other than the fact they gave him IVs yesterday at the doctors, and he’s feeling much better today,” Sherman said.

Manziel, with a white baseball cap pulled low over his eyes, did little but watch Thursday’s pregame walkthrough at Montreal’s practice facility in the shadow of Olympic Stadium. At times, he spun a football in his hand.

In a six-minute interview with reporters afterward, he said he feels as if he’s spinning his wheels with his second CFL team. What’s particularly frustrating, he said, is the Alouettes traded “half of an organization I feel like in terms of what they gave up to get me here.”

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats dealt Manziel and offensive linemen Tony Washington and Landon Rice to Montreal on July 22 for Canadian defensive end Jamaal Westerman and receiver Chris Williams as well as 2020 and 2021 first-round picks.

Manziel, who made headlines when he signed a two-year contract with Hamilton before the start of training camp, didn’t get any regular-season action backing up Ticats incumbent Jeremiah Masoli.

It’s hard, he said, not to see similarities in his current situation.

“That’s where maybe it’s a little bit lost on me, because I felt like I was brought in here to be a piece, had a lot of faith in me the first couple of weeks I was here … since I missed the games because of the concussion and then not getting to play once I was back has been frustrating for sure, because I felt like there was a lot of hope, and a lot of faith in me being the guy here,” he said.

“How quickly that’s changed in two weeks is tough.”

Pipkin has led Montreal to consecutive victories and is 2-1 as the club’s starter. He has 762 yards passing with a TD and four interceptions while having rushed for 127 rushing yards and four touchdowns in 17 carries.

Manziel has started two games for Montreal, both losses. He has completed 27 of 46 passes for 272 yards and four interceptions.

Manziel, who served as Pipkin’s backup for the Als’ 21-11 victory over the Redblacks on Aug. 31, recalled something Sherman told him when he first arrived in Montreal.

Continental competition is rarely short on narratives. But in instances when the football fails to deliver on suspense, fixtures between sides with polarized European pedigree and matchups rife with historical context provide enough of a plot.

With Thursday’s Champions League draw in Monaco acting as a fitting venue to highlight both the opulence and frequently inequitable nature of European contests, here’s a glance at five storylines to watch in this year’s competition.

Familiar friends become feared foes

Reunited and it feels so good. Continental heavyweights Juventus and Manchester United are set to square off on two occasions with Group H honors on the line, with both Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Pogba facing their former sides.

Ronaldo, who tormented the Premier League for six seasons while with United, bagged 16 goals in European competition with the Red Devils. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner also played under Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid, adding another wrinkle to a scenario not short on storylines. The bronzed Portuguese footballing deity will line up across from Pogba, who left United in 2012 due to a dearth of first-team appearances, only to return after four seasons with Juventus.

Not to be overlooked, speedy World Cup-winning Frenchman Thomas Lemar’s summer switch to the Spanish capital largely flew under the radar amid an enthralling quadrennial tourney in Russia, though the 22-year-old will be front and center when he faces former club Monaco in Group A play.

History champions Manchester City

With last season’s domestic double under his belt, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola can now focus on replicating his continental successes at Barcelona with his current lot, and history favors the Catalan coach’s chances.

Since the Champions League format changed for the 2003-04 installment, 40 percent of the tournament winners have come from Group F. With City gifted a facile task of besting the likes of Shakhtar Donetsk, Hoffenheim, and a youthful Lyon side, Guardiola and Co. should advance to the knockout stage with two matches to play.

Poch’s return to Catalan country marks next notch for Spurs

When Tottenham drew with Real at the Bernabeu before dumping the Spaniards by a 3-1 margin at Wembley, it marked a coming-of-age tale for the Londoners. Spurs would top the group, and a year on, they have again been given a chance to prove their worth.

This time, the Argentine gaffer and his charges will travel to the Catalan capital to face Barcelona, providing an opportunity for Tottenham to continue carving their place among Europe’s emerging clubs. Pochettino, who enjoyed his best spell as a center-half with Barcelona cohabitant Espanyol, again faces a tough challenge with Eredivisie holder PSV and three-time European Cup winners Inter rounding out Group B.

Group(s) of Death

Those who fancy groups stacked with bonafide contenders have been dealt a fortuitous hand. Of the eight groups, only Group G (Real, Roma, CSKA Moscow, Viktoria Plzen) has two clear favorites, and only Group D merits a laugh (Lokomotiv Moscow, Porto, Schalke, Galatasaray).

That leaves a half-dozen groups littered with quality sides, including the aforementioned Group B. Pair that with several others boasting three accomplished sides, such as Group A (Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, and Monaco), Group C (Paris Saint-Germain, Napoli, and Liverpool), and Group H (Juventus, Manchester United, and Valencia), and there are four assemblages that can lay claim to the “Group of Death” distinction.

Schalke, Galatasaray come away the biggest winners

Of the 32 teams involved Thursday, no sides – besides Lancashire leviathan Manchester City – benefited from the draw like Bundesliga outfit Schalke and Turkish giant Galatasaray.

Slotted into Group D with the most inferior of the eight Pot 1 clubs – Russian Premier League holder Lokomotiv Moscow – along with defending Portuguese champions FC Porto, both Schalke and Galatasaray will entertain realistic hopes of advancing to the last-16. The Gelsenkirchen lot has made the knockout stage of European competition in seven of the last eight seasons, and with relative unknown Domenico Tedesco bossing a youthful praiseworthy side, Schalke could be one of the darlings of the 2018-19 Champions League.

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)

METAIRIE, La. — NFL commissioner Roger Goodell joined New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson and a trio of Saints players on Tuesday for an in-depth look at New Orleans’ criminal justice system.

Also, Arizona Cardinals president Michael Bidwill joined three of his players in a Tuesday meeting with Arizona governor Doug Ducey as part of the NFL’s ongoing efforts to effect social change.

Goodell’s visit to New Orleans was the latest in a series of “Listen & Learn” tours that have taken place around the league over the past year — one of many initiatives introduced by the Players Coalition in the wake of Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest and the social movement that followed.

Although anthem protests have created a firestorm, Saints tight end and Players Coalition member Benjamin Watson said what matters most is “how can we take this, which is now something people are talking about, and steer it in a way that is productive and creates the change that we want.”

“So I am proud of the way that no matter how we got to this point, I’m proud of the way that players have continued to educate themselves and the way that the NFL has come alongside us and helped us in this way,” Watson said, “because good can come from however something like that starts.”

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