Deposed England captain John Terry, the man at the centre of the storm between the FA and Fabio Capello, has left the country on a mini-break.

The Chelsea defender was given five days off by Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas and is understood to be in a secret hideaway in Portugal with his family.

He is sidelined with a knee injury and will miss tomorrow’s game at Everton.

Villas-Boas said: ‘John’s got some time off because of the injury, not because of the captaincy.’