Gary Lineker pulls out of presenting MOTD due to ‘super cold’

Daniel Brown

Lineker has got the ‘super cold’

Gary Lineker had pulled out of presenting Match of the Day on Saturday night due to an ‘awful cold’ that is ‘doing the rounds’ at the moment.

The former Barcelona striker – who has presented MOTD since 1999 – has revealed that he is suffering from a cold, with many other people around the country struck with the same illness.

Whilst it would be simple to suggest that the symptoms points towards the illness being COVID-19, people are still receiving negative tests and suffering from the cold.

However, as per BBC, Dr Philippa Kaye, a GP based in London, suggests that it would still be linked to what’s happened in the past 18 months.

She said: “We’ve actually been seeing a rise in the number of coughs and colds and viral infections.

“We are mixing in a way that we haven’t been mixing over the past 18 months.

“During those first lockdowns, we saw numbers of other [non-Covid] infections fall. We think that that was primarily due to the restrictions on meeting up.”

Lineker was keen to express his gratitude for the ‘lovely’ get well soon messages he has received, insisting that it is important to focus on those, rather than ‘nasty’ tweets.

There’s a cracking Premier League fixture list today so doubly gutted at not being able to do @BBCMOTD. Had this awful cold for a few days that’s doing the rounds… not Covid thankfully. The brilliant @markchapman will take the reins.

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) October 16, 2021

Thanks for all the very lovely get well soon messages. Makes you realise that the overwhelming majority of people are kind and considerate. Important not to be mislead into thinking the opposite by the occasional nasty tweet. Cheers all ❤️

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) October 16, 2021

Speaking on Twitter, Lineker said: “There’s a cracking Premier League fixture list today so doubly gutted at not being able to do @BBCMOTD. Had this awful cold for a few days that’s doing the rounds… not Covid thankfully. The brilliant @markchapman will take the reins.”

He added: “Thanks for all the very lovely get well soon messages. Makes you realise that the overwhelming majority of people are kind and considerate. Important not to be mislead into thinking the opposite by the occasional nasty tweet. Cheers all.”

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