Gary Lineker's replacement confirmed as he's forced to pull out of BBC FA Cup coverage

Gary Lineker has been forced to pull out of covering Sunday night's BBC FA Cup match (March 19) just days after returning to host Match of the Day.

His replacement has now been confirmed. Gary returned to TV to present the channel's flagship football programme on Saturday (March 18), covering Man Ciry's FA cup match against Burnley.

However, he will not be fronting the BBC's coverage of Brighton vs Grimsby Town tonight due to illness, reports LeedsLive. In a tweet, BBC Sport said: "Due to illness, we've got a line-up change for today's live FA Cup coverage of Brighton v Grimsby on BBC One.

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"As viewers will have noticed yesterday, Gary Lineker was struggling with his voice and unfortunately it has deteriorated overnight. Alex Scott will be hosting instead."

Gary returned to the BBC yesterday after a row over a tweet saw the channel suspend him. It saw a number of colleagues walk out in solidarity with Lineker, with Alan Shearer labelling the events of the week "difficult".

He said: "I just need to clear up and wanted to say how upset we were (to) all the audiences who missed out on last weekend. It was a 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 and that wasn’t fair."

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