ASHLEY COLE will be handed the England captain’s armband this evening, seven months after being fined £90,000 for branding the Football Association a ‘bunch of t***s’ on Twitter.

Though Cole has since apologised for his social media outburst, which was triggered by an independent regulatory commission casting doubt on the evidence he gave to the John Terry racial abuse case, it brought further negative publicity to a player whose onpitch performances brought him his 100th cap against Brazil in February.

The Chelsea man’s achievement will be acknowledged by a ceremonial presentation ahead of tonight’s Wembley encounter with the Republic of Ireland.

It was this that coach Roy Hodgson felt should be additionally recognised by Cole being named skipper on a oneoff basis.

Yet the FA managed to get themselves into such a muddle over the issue that Hodgson ended up having to rerecord what had been a live TV press conference in order to clarify what was happening.

“Frank has always been the captain in Steve’s absence,” Hodgson said initially.

“I appointed him vice-captain. But in actual fact tomorrow I have discussed this and Frank is happy for Ashley to lead the team onto the field in celebration of his 100th cap which he’ll receive tomorrow.

“It’s actually his 102nd appearance but he’ll receive the cap tomorrow; so Frank and I are happy that he will lead the team out there.

“But Frank is still remains captain of the team – I’m afraid that’s a bit more complicated than you maybe would have liked it to be, but that’s the way it is.”

Within an hour this had changed to: “The England captain tomorrow night is Ashley Cole.”

The sensitivity around the captaincy issue is perhaps understandable because Cole has for a number of years now refused to speak with the wider media.

His grievance seems to come from his poor public profile and has been held for so long there was no intention of changing his stance, even for the honour of being named captain.

That got the FA into more trouble because in claiming there was no commitment to put the captain forward for pre-match media duties, they were actually ignoring their own note, that had been sent round last week.

That got the FA into more trouble because in claiming there was no commitment to put the captain forward for pre-match media duties, they were actually ignoring their own note, that had been sent round last week.

Under normal circumstances, the team captain would be the player who spoke on the eve of a game.

Yet it is a measure of the sensitivites surrounding Cole that such a relatively innocuous matter should end up causing such a fuss, which clearly Hodgson did not understand.

“Why are you so anxious to see Ashley?” he said.

“It amazes me that such an event can cause such consternation, first of all.

“The symbolism here is that a player, who’s been a fantastic player for two football clubs and England...normally speaking, the player who gets the 100th cap captains the team.

“He won’t be the first player across the world to get his 100th cap who isn’t the captain normally.

“You’re making a bigger thing than we are. We would like him to be captain on his 100th game.”

So, Cole will lead England out, toss the coin and wear the armband for as long as he happens to be on the pitch.

“I suppose it is odd in some ways in the sense that Ashley is not the person who likes to stand in front of a large group of journalists and take on the responsibility of having to speak for the team,” said Hodgson. “As as a result, he has never actually been considered for (the) captaincy despite the fact that he has played over 100 games.”

And that is it.

With even FA chairman David Bernstein apparently not consulted on the issue either, despite his prominence in the Terry case.

“That was something which was dealt with quite swiftly at the time, between the chairman and Ashley Cole,” said Hodgson.

“They were satisfied that matter was put behind them. It is water under the bridge. It’s not something we’ve taken into consideration at all.”

Robbie Keane will lead the Republic of Ireland tonight, less than 36 hours after his latest trans- Atlantic dash.

The 32-year-old striker will win his 124th senior international cap at Wembley having only landed in London from Los Angles yesterday morning.

England: Hart; Johnson, Cahill, Jones, Cole; Lampard, Carrick; Milner, Rooney, Walcott; Sturridge Ireland: Forde; Coleman, O’Shea, St Ledger, Kelly; Walters, McCarthy, Whelan, McGeady; Long, Keane (Capt).