Gary Lineker has apologised to Alan Shearer after the Match of the Day host previously 'had a pop' at the Newcastle United legend for playing for the Magpies just a few days after missing an England game through injury.
Shearer won 63 caps for England and the Euro '96 Golden Boot winner captained the Three Lions under both Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan.
Shearer loved playing for England but, in his days as a pundit, Lineker took issue with an unspecified occasion where the No 9 played for Newcastle at the weekend after missing an England game with an injury a few days previously.
Lineker may have forgotten the incident, but Shearer certainly remembered it as the pair and Micah Richards discussed how punditry has changed over the years on the Match of the Day: Top 10 podcast.
GL: "It wasn't really until Alan Hansen came in that it started to become more analytical and a bit more critical about positional play, more about explaining why people would do things. In my day, you'd get people having a pop at you just saying, 'He shouldn't be in the team' and then, obviously, you didn't like that."
AS: "It's only ever bothered me once when I didn't play for England in the midweek and I played for Newcastle - I think it was on the Saturday - and a pundit had a pop at me for not playing for England."
MR: "Can you name names?"
GL: "Was it me?"
AS: "Yeah. You did!"
GL: "Oh. I'm glad you've forgotten it..."
AS: "Not that it bothered me or anything!"
GL: "I had no memory of that. So you played for Newcastle on the...?"
AS: "I went away with England and I couldn't play because I had an injury and then I played the following weekend."
GL: "That's outrageous. Why did you put your club before your country?"
AS: "The one thing you could never accuse me of is not wanting to play football."
GL: "Can I just say a belated apology? Heartfelt apology."
AS: "Apology accepted. No problem. Just thought I'd pull you up on that!"
MR: "Lovely Alan. Lovely!"
GL: "On that note.."
MR: "Moving on swiftly.."
