Gary Lineker says he was moved to tears by the show of solidarity from his BBC Match of the Day colleagues Ian Wright and Alan Shearer in the wake of him being taken off air by the corporation earlier this month.
Amid a fierce backlash, Lineker was forced off air and told that he had breached the broadcaster's impartiality guidelines in the wake of a tweet he sent criticising the government's plans to effectively ban the vast majority of people who were seeking asylum in the UK from entering the country.
In the hours that followed the BBC announcement, pundit Wright tweeted to state that he would not be appearing on that weekend's Match of the Day if there were to be no Lineker, with Shearer then following suit.
