Ian Appleyard: England squad will find it difficult to pledge loyalty to Terry

The Italian wanted nothing to upset his side's preparations for next summer's World Cup but the Chelsea defender has put paid to that idea.

Allegations that he has done the dirty on a team-mate Wayne Bridge means he will have lost a huge chunk of respect in the dressing room thanks to an apparent extra marital affair.

No one is questioning his quality as a defender but as a leader of men, a person with honour, any sort of role model? Forget it.

Sadly, Terry is just another example of the modern multi-millionaire footballer who has rarely heard the word 'no'.

That was until last week when a High Court judge ruled that Terry could not stop the media from exposing his infidelity.

And it is not the first time that Terry has been involved in kiss-and-tell stories or off-the-field controversy.

His father has been accused of drug dealing and his mother was caught shoplifting. More recently, Terry faced allegations of accepting sizeable cheques to take businessmen on tours of Stamford Bridge.

Each and every time, it has not affected his game and, typically, he shook off the latest scandal to score the winner for Chelsea against Burnley on Saturday night – but there is only so much you can pass off as incidental.

There are suggestions that Terry might even miss out on the World Cup altogether if Capello feels his presence sufficently destabilises the England squad to threaten chances of success.

Only recently, Capello revealed that he believes in-fighting cost the Italian squad, of which he was a member, success in the 1974 tournament.

Capello is likely to assess the impact of Terry's presence in the squad when England meet in March ahead of the friendly international against Egypt before making that particular call.

Naturally, he would prefer to keep Terry, who has led England through the qualifers without any sort of a hiccup. But he also made it clear that no player is 'untouchable'.

How will the rest of the England team be able to pledge any loyalty to Terry? And what about Bridge?

It is difficult to imagine the Manchester City defender even wanting to share a dressing room with Terry now let alone pass him the ball during a game.

Bridge is apparently ready to quit international football but he should be holding his head high.

Could England win the World Cup without Terry? Possibly. But Rio Ferdinand would have to rediscover his best form after a lengthy injury absence and Matthew Upson would need to shine.

Who are the contenders to replace Terry as leader? Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard or even Wayne Rooney, who appears to be maturing amid the new responsibility he holds as a parent.

Interestingly, if things had been different, England's problem might also have been Huddersfield Town's.

For 10 years ago, Chelsea accepted a 750,000 bid for Terry from the Terriers. Still a teenager at the time, Terry rejected the opportunity to move north and the rest, of course, is history. Town spent the money instead on Bury's Chris Lucketti.

Inevitably, there have been plenty of jokes about the scandal flashing up on mobile phones up and down the country.