John Terry's groin has picked this England team... now he shouldn't be picked in it either

By Steve Anglesey in Mirror Football Blog

Published 12:02 25/02/10

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Fabio Capello can't do anything about Rio Ferdinand's back or Ashley Cole's ankle.

He can't do anything either about Wayne Bridge's head, which has understandably been damaged by learning that his best friend John Terry was conducting a secret adulterous affair with Vanessa Perroncel, the mother of his child.

But Capello can do something about John Terry's groin.

It's the coach who should be picking the England team - not his ex-skipper's package.

Yet Terry's actions have caused Capello to lose the services of the man who would almost certainly have been his first-choice left back against Egypt on Wednesday and, if Cole had failed to recover, in South Africa too.

Merely stripping Terry of the England captaincy would have been enough had Bridge decided to bite his tongue and let bygones be bygones.

But, perfectly understandably, he has decided he can't live with changing, training and playing alongside a man who has betrayed him.

The fact that Bridge is not playing well at the moment is an irrelevance. And the consequences should be the same as it would be if it were Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard dropping out of the team because of Terry.

If Terry had anything about him, he would reflect on Bridge's statement, make himself unavailable for the Egypt game and publicly urge Bridge to reconsider his decision about the summer.

But alas, as shown by his spineless failure to resign the captaincy before it was rightly removed from him, he doesn't.

So Don Fabio should once again prepare for a whacking and tell Terry his services will not be required on Wednesday... and possibly for some time into the future.

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