John Terry says he did not give up hope that he would regain the England captaincy.
After a week of media hype, manager Fabio Capello confirmed that he would be restoring the Chelsea man as his skipper at the weekend and Terry is now set to lead the country out in Saturday’s Euro 2012 Group B qualifier against Wales at the Millennium Stadium.
The defender was stripped of the armband just over a year ago following allegations that he had an affair with the former girlfriend of ex-team-mate (and then England colleague) Wayne Bridge. Bridge subsequently walked away from the national team and did not make himself available for the World Cup in South Africa.
Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand took over as captain but, more often than not, he missed out on national team games through injury, meaning that Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard has been fulfilling the role. Neither Ferdinand nor Gerrard are fit for the Wales game or next Tuesday’s friendly against Ghana.
Terry, meanwhile, says that, despite the backlash after last year’s damaging allegations, he always retained hope that he would captain his country again.
The Sun quotes the player as saying: "I've always done whatever the manager needs of me to make sure we win.
"I moved on very quickly from the decision about losing the captaincy and I've never fallen out with the manager.
"But I've never given up hope that I will captain England again.
"When the manager told me in that meeting at Wembley that I was losing the job I accepted and respected his decision - even though I did not necessarily agree with it - shook his hand and his assistant Franco Baldini's hand and told them I'd always give 100%.
"The manager said he really appreciated that and hoped that would be the case."