Gary Lineker won't be presenting Match of the Day's Premier League highlights on Saturday
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Gary Lineker won't be presenting Match of the Day's Premier League highlights this weekend, despite returning to the BBC earlier in the week.
A week ago, the BBC were in disarray as they lost pretty much all of their football coverage for the weekend or at least had it massively changed.
After the corporation decided to pull Lineker from presenting duties, due to his social media post, a hoard of presenters, pundits and commentators stood in solidarity with the 62-year-old.
It resulted in Football Focus, Final Score and BBC 5 Live sports all being pulled on Saturday, whilst Match of the Day went ahead with no commentary or punditry, which was apparently better according to a bunch of Tory MPs who have likely never watched the show before.
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Fortunately this week common sense prevailed, allowing the former Tottenham Hotspur striker to return to the BBC and take up is role once again.
He actually returned to people's TV screens on Friday, to preview Sunday's Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid, with a typical Lineker joke.
And he will be on the BBC on Saturday, however, it won't be to introduce highlights from the Premier League, as he's actually needed elsewhere.
The presenter will be on live duty for Manchester City's FA Cup tie with Burnley, with Alan Shearer, who refused to work last week, and Micah Richards as his pundits.
It would be a lot to ask of him to then get into the studio and have enough knowledge of the Premier League games between Brentford and Leicester City, Southampton and Tottenham, Aston Villa and Bournemouth, Wolves and Leeds United, and Chelsea and Everton to present normal Match of the Day.
Instead, Mark Chapman, who didn't present his usual radio show last week, will be in the studio to cover everything from England's top tier.
Fans may not have to wait too long to see Lineker again though, as he could well be working Grimsby's FA Cup tie with Brighton on Sunday, also live on BBC.
The presenter's wit and humour is often what draws people to him, and we can almost certainly expect a jibe at Shearer for never winning football's oldest cup competition.
His opening line will no doubt be cause of much interest, and it will be interesting to see if he replicates the line from his first Match of the Day as presenter.
Back at the start of the 1999/2000 season, the former England star opened the show saying, "Hey, tell you what. Football's back," before turning to the production crew to ask, "Any good? Have I got the job?"
Featured Image Credit: BBC/Alamy
Topics: Football, Premier League, FA Cup, Match Of The Day, Gary Lineker, Manchester City, Burnley
