Fabio Capello happy to cultivate hard-man image as he bans any talk of sacked skipper

ENGLAND coach Fabio Capello has attempted to end any debate about his decision to sack John Terry as captain.

Capello released a short statement on Friday following his short meeting with Terry, outlining that he had taken the action in the "best interests" of his whole team. It was expected the Italian would offer a more fulsome explanation in Warsaw yesterday following the qualifying draw for Euro 2012, which has pitted England against Wales, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Montenegro. However, given he kept his words to Terry to a minimum, it was perhaps no surprise the 63-year-old was in no mood to be more expansive with the media.

"I spoke with John Terry, you all know why. It was a private conversation," said Capello. "No other questions. I am concentrated on football and I want to speak about the draw. Nothing else."

If Capello had his way, he would have been out of the Palace of Science and Culture immediately afterwards. Instead, he hung around for a little bit longer, although it was clear the subject of Terry was off limits.

"I am not surprised by the number of journalists," he said as he surveyed the largest media scrum at any of the specially roped off areas for the individual groups. "I was waiting for them. But it has been a normal week for me. There have been no problems."

England play African Nations Cup winners Egypt at Wembley on 3 March, when the subject of Terry is bound to crop up again, particularly as it has become normal practice for the team captain to speak to the media the day before each international. That will not be a problem for Rio Ferdinand, who has handled such situations so often in the past.

Yesterday though, Capello was not interested, adopting a stance which will only fuel his hard-man image, particularly as his one snippet of information confirmed he had not discussed the matter once with Ferdinand, despite the enormity of the job that has been handed to the Manchester United man. "I will speak with Rio, just as I have spoken to John Terry."

Meanwhile, former Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink backed Terry to bounce back from the disappointment of losing the captaincy.

Hiddink said: "I loved to work with him and even in training sometimes I had to say to him 'a little bit slower because we have a game tomorrow', which means he's very committed. I know his spirit. He will fight back."

Hiddink backed Capello's stance, saying: "They had to make a decision and knowing Fabio he made the right decision."