BRIEFLY : MINOR-LEAGUE HOCKEY PLAYER MIGHT LOSE EYE.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

New York Islanders prospect Jeff Libby might have his right eye removed after being cut by a skate in a game Saturday.

Libby, playing with the American Hockey League's Lowell, Mass., Lock Monsters, was cut by the skate of St. John's, Newfoundland Maple Leafs forward Mark Deyell.

Libby, a 24-year-old defenseman, was trailing the play when Deyell was upended by two Lowell players, causing his feet to be knocked into the air. One of his skates sliced Libby's right eyeball.

``It's about as serious as it gets and we're all concerned,'' said Tom Rowe, a team executive. ``The least of our worries right now is his hockey career; we're more worried about his health.''

Libby, who wasn't wearing a protective eye visor, underwent five hours of surgery Saturday night and remains in a Newfoundland hospital. He'll return to Massachusetts by Wednesday and will be examined by a specialist to determine if he'll need to have the eye removed.

John Spano, who pleaded guilty 13 months ago to defrauding the National Hockey League, is being investigated by federal prosecutors for bouncing a $7,700 rent check while awaiting his jail sentence, people familiar with the inquiry told Bloomberg News.

In October 1997, Spano admitted that he forged documents and lied to banks and the NHL. Earlier last year, Spano said he had $165 million to buy the New York Islanders franchise, when he had only about $1.4 million.

MEDIA: Fox Sports News, Rupert Murdoch's cable sports network, has landed two big prizes: MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and ESPN's Chris Myers. The two will start work as sports anchors early next month.

Myers has hosted ESPN's ``Up Close'' for years, and his departure was a bit of a surprise.

Not Olbermann's. The former ``SportsCenter'' anchor has complained publicly about MSNBC's shameless pursuit of ratings and its apparent obsession with Monica Lewinsky. He had about two years left on his three-year deal with MSNBC as host of ``The Big Show'' and anchor for ``White House in Crisis.''

FOOTBALL: Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke will undergo neck surgery and miss the rest of the season, doctors said.

X-rays revealed Weinke suffered a herniated disc, ligament injuries and a small bone fragment in his right arm when he was sacked during FSU's 45-14 win over Virginia on Saturday. The injuries caused numbness in his arm.

OLYMPICS: A British expert on performance-enhancing drugs is recommending that athletes' blood, as well as urine, be tested at the Sydney Olympics.

``By 2000, unless we are testing with blood, we haven't got a chance,'' Dr. David Cowan, director of the Drug Control Center at Kings College London, was quoted as saying in the Irish Independent newspaper.

Speaking at a weekend conference on drugs in international sports, Cowan said that urine testing failed to detect abuse of the endurance-building drug EPO and human growth hormone, or HGH.