Alan Shearer addressed what he called the 'impossible situation' he and his colleagues found themselves last week, after Gary Lineker was ordered to take a break from the BBC.
The 62-year-old and former England striker was taken off air last week for a tweet comparing the language used to launch a new Government asylum seeker policy with 1930s Germany and, after scores of BBC colleagues also stood down in solidarity with Gary, the popular presenter was back in the studio to oversee coverage of Manchester City and Burnley in the FA Cup.
Ahead of kick off at the Etihad, Gary posted a photo of himself on set, alongside Newcastle United legend Alan and former Man City star Micah Richards, captioning it 'Teammates' along with a hands in the air emoji.
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While Gary kept his cards slightly closer to his chest as FA Cup coverage kicked off on BBC One on Saturday night, Alan addressed the controversy head on, live on air in the opening moments of the broadcast.
He began: "I just need to clear up and wanted to say how upset we were that all the audiences who missed out on last weekend."
Alan added: "It was really difficult situation for everyone concerned, and through no fault of their own some really great people in TV and in radio were put in an impossible situation.
"That wasn't fair. So it's good to get back to some sort of normality and be talking about football again."
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