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Roy Hodgson has revealed that he couldn't include both John Terry and Rio Ferdinand for his England squad at Euro 2012 due to allegations that the Chelsea legend racially abused his international team-mate's younger brother Anton.
Ferdinand and Terry were widely perceived as England's best two centre-backs at the time, though then England manager Hodgson was handed a difficult decision due to 'non-footballing reasons'.
Terry was accused of using racist language towards Rio's younger brother during a match between Chelsea and QPR at Loftus Road in October 2011.
The Chelsea star, who was then captaining England, was handed a four-game ban and a £220,000 fine from the Football Association, however he was cleared in court after being charged over the incident - while he has always denied abusing Anton Ferdinand.
On the day that current England manager Gareth Southgate announced his World Cup squad for Qatar, Hodgson has re-lived his difficult decision while speaking to Sky Sports.
Hodgson opted to include Terry in his squad for the tournament co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland, and he partnered Joleon Lescott in the centre of defence while Rio Ferdinand stayed at home.
He said: 'Obviously, the furore which came about as a result of the Anton Ferdinand and John Terry situation was a massive topic at the time and a very controversial one.
Roy Hodgson has revealed that he couldn't pick both Rio Ferdinand and John Terry for his England squad at Euro 2012 - as he ended up choosing the latter for the tournament
Terry had been accused of racially abusing Rio's younger brother Anton earlier in the season in which he was cleared by court but received a four-game ban and a fine by the FA
'I'm not so certain, having got to know Rio a little bit in a conversation I had with him a little bit later on that he and John couldn't have got along.
'But they did split not only the public opinion over which one was the better player, but they split the mass media as well.
'One had a powerful backing from one group of newspapers, and the other had powerful backing from the other. There was a fear that the animosity - if nothing else between the two newspapers and two factions - could cause us problems.
'I couldn't go out at the time - and I think people now
