Gary Lineker shares picture from studio as he celebrates 'joys of sticking to football'

18 March 2023, 17:41 | Updated: 18 March 2023, 17:59

Gary Lineker posted a photo back in the Match of the Day studio as he reflected on 'the joys of being allowed to stick to football'.

Lineker did not work on Match of the Day last week after being suspended for tweets about the government's Rwanda migrant policy.

He was accused of violating the Corporation's impartiality rules before receiving a swift U-turn and apology.

Lineker, 62, shared another tweet with fellow pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.

The ex-England striker captioned the post: "Teammates."

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Lineker had been asked to step back from presenting Match of the Day, which saw fellow pundits and commentators boycott the show and its Sunday edition over the weekend.

Instead, the BBC showed highlights packages of the Premier League games without any presenters, analysis and commentary.

The row was resolved when the BBC said it would review social media guidance.

Alan Shearer said the crisis was "really difficult" and that he was glad to be back.

The Newcastle legend said: “I just need to clear up and wanted to say how upset we were [to] all the audiences who missed out on last weekend.

“It was a really difficult situation for everyone concerned – and through no fault of their own, some really great people in TV and in radio were put in an impossible situation and that wasn’t fair.

“So it’s good to get back to some sort of normality and be talking about football again.”

Mr Lineker had updated his Twitter profile picture to include him walking past a quote by George Orwell outside the BBC.

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear," it said.

It now reads: "Once kicked a ball about. Now talk about kicking a ball about."